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Davos: DJT Tells It Like It Is
During his address to attendees at the World Economic Forum, Donald Trump left no doubt that the United States is back in business.
After what had undoubtedly been the busiest and most earth-shaking first few days in American presidential history, Donald Trump wisely phoned it in at the World Economic Forum.
By that, I simply mean that he addressed the world’s business leaders — and the prostitutes! Don’t forget the prostitutes! — remotely rather than in person. Still, we half expected him to finish that two-hour Hannity interview, fire off a few more truthy Truths, grab his skis and a Diet Coke, and take the last Air Force One redeye to Davos.
But no. He opted for a Zoom call instead. I can hear the haters now: Dude has clearly lost the zip on his fastball.
They wish. In a 45-minute Trumpian address followed by a wide-ranging Q&A, the American president made clear to Klaus Schwab and his fellow Great Resetters what they already knew: There’s a new sheriff in town.
Trump’s speech began with a grim-faced introduction from Dr. Evil himself: “Mr. President, what great honor and pleasure to welcome you back to ze Davos community. Just four days into your new mandate, we highly appreciate your presence wizz us today. We wish you all ze best as you take on your critical work ahead. … Ladies and gentlemen, ze president of ze United States, Donald J. Trump.”
Trump began his remarks as only Trump can: by noting that it’s been “a truly historic week in the United States” and that we’ve begun “the Golden Age of America.” Oh, and by reminding those in attendance that he won all seven swing states.
“What the world has witnessed in the past 72 hours,” he said, “is nothing less than a revolution of common sense. Our country will soon be wealthier, stronger, and more united than ever before, and the entire planet will be more peaceful and prosperous as a result of this incredible momentum.”
After that modest prologue, Trump made clear that he has a bit of a mess to clean up. “My administration is acting with unprecedented speed to fix the disasters we’ve inherited from a totally inept group of people and to solve every single crisis facing our country. This begins with confronting the economic chaos caused by the failed policies of the last administration.”
From there, Trump outlined his plan, but not before delivering this broadside to everything the World Economic Forum stands for:
To defeat inflation and reduce the cost of daily life, I imposed a federal hiring freeze, a federal regulation freeze, a foreign aid freeze, and I created the new Department of Government Efficiency. I terminated the ridiculous and incredibly wasteful Green New Deal. I call it the Green New Scam. Withdrew from the one-sided Paris Climate Accord and ended the insane and costly electric vehicle mandate. We’re gonna let people buy the car they want to buy. I declared a national energy emergency … to unlock the liquid gold under our feet and pave the way for rapid approvals of new energy infrastructure. The United States has the largest amount of oil and gas of any country on earth, and we’re going to use it.
Wow.
Then came the meat and potatoes of Trump’s global trade policy: “My message to every business in the world is very simple: Come make your product in America, and we will give you among the lowest taxes of any nation on earth. We’re bringing them down very substantially, even from the original Trump tax cuts.”
That was clearly the carrot. Then came the stick: “But if you don’t make your product in America, which is your prerogative, then very simply you will have to pay a tariff — differing amounts, but a tariff, which will direct hundreds of billions of dollars and even trillions of dollars into our treasury to strengthen our economy and pay down debt. Under the Trump administration, there will be no better place on Earth to create jobs, build factories, or grow a company than right here in the good old USA.”
Regarding this last part, a colleague here in our editorial shop observed, “If that doesn’t make you want to stand up and cheer, then you probably have TDS.”
As if to say, Jump on in, the water’s fine, Trump added this: “And it’s also reported today in the papers that Saudi Arabia will be investing at least $600 billion in America, but I’ll be asking the crown prince — who’s a fantastic guy — to round it out to around $1 trillion. I think they’ll do that because we’ve been very good to them.”
For years, the WEF has promoted a meddlesome and ruinous business framework called ESG, or Environmental, Social, and Governance. An offshoot of ESG has, of course, been DEI, and Trump trashed that, too. “My administration has taken action to abolish all discriminatory Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion nonsense — and these are policies that were absolute nonsense — throughout the government and the private sector.”
It was, frankly, an utterly dominant presentation, a tour de force. And it was followed by a lengthy and free-flowing Q&A session, during which Trump stressed geopolitical imperatives such as ending the war in Ukraine.
“We really have to stop that war,” he said. “That war is horrible. And I’m not talking … economics; I’m not talking about natural resources. I’m just talking about — there’s so many young people being killed in this war.”
Trump says he wants to be remembered as a peacemaker, and his focus on Ukraine made clear that he’s serious: “I think the thing you’ll see about Ukraine is that far more people have died than is being reported. … When you look at a city that has become a demolition site, where big buildings have been collapsed by missiles … and they say, ‘One person was slightly injured’ … that’s not true.”
Through it all, the deference of the world’s business leaders was remarkable. And it was impossible — laughable, even — to imagine Joe Biden having carried off such a thing. World leaders are no doubt shaking their heads at what transpired yesterday in Davos, and they’re marveling at the difference an American election makes.
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