January 2026

from NYTimes Website

Contents

• At Davos a Clash between 'Trump's World' and the 'Old World'

• Trump Takes Davos

At Davos a Clash

...between 'Trump's World' and the 'Old World'
by Zolan Kanno-Youngs
Reporting from the World Economic Forum

 in Davos, Switzerland
January 21, 2026

from NYTimes Website

Article also HERE...

Audience members listening to

President Trump's address at Davos on Wednesday.

Credit: Doug Mills/The New York Times



For decades,

leaders have gathered in Davos

to discuss a shared economic and political future.

On Wednesday, President Trump

turned the forum into a bracing clash

between his worldview and theirs...

As President Donald J. Trump threatened to upend some of the central pillars of the Western order on Wednesday, during a speech at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland,

some in the crowd of elites sat speechless.

 

Others groaned.

 

A few gasped.

Alexander Stubb, the Finnish president and a key power broker in Europe, stood up ashen-faced at the end of the speech that took aim at people like him:

the leaders of the Western political and economic elite.

As others made for the exits, Mr. Stubb approached Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina - seeking to learn more, Mr. Graham later said, about Mr. Trump and the United States' position.

"Everybody in Europe is concerned," Mr. Graham, an ally of Mr. Trump, said dismissively after speaking to Mr. Stubb.

 

"They're concerned when they get up and when they go to bed."

The reaction from Mr. Stubb, who declined to comment, embodied a broader sense of shock across the conference, a talking shop for political and economic leaders.

For decades, like-minded politicians, businesspeople, investors and celebrities have gathered in Davos to discuss a shared economic and political future.

But for more than an hour on Wednesday in one of the main speaking halls, Mr. Trump transformed the forum into the setting of,

a dramatic rupture between the West's leading player and its increasingly distant allies.

After mocking European leaders for days, Mr. Trump flew thousands of miles to this snowy mountainside to launch into a verbal assault against the Western alliance, the values of its leaders and societies, and the framework of world trade.

By the end of the day Mr. Trump had rescinded some of his worst threats, saying that he had reached a tentative framework with NATO over the future of Greenland, which he wants to buy from Denmark, and withdrawn threats to impose new tariffs on allies that opposed U.S. ownership of Greenland.

While some European leaders expressed a glimmer of hope over the moves, they did little to salve the deep fear among Davos's browbeaten guests that the United States could no longer be relied on as an ally.

Earlier in the day the group had weathered insult after insult from Mr. Trump about their approach to trade, the environment and immigration.

Scattered chuckling fell to an anxious silence before turning into audible gasps as Mr. Trump used his speech to once again demand ownership of Greenland, lash out against NATO and vaguely threaten economic warfare if the European leaders did not acquiesce to his demands.

European leaders sat stunned as Mr. Trump insulted their governments and questioned their reliability as allies...

 

Others grimaced as Mr. Trump claimed the European nations and Canada owed the United States a debt...

 

Some even scrambled after the speech to find and question current and former U.S. officials about the president's thinking and the future of the United States as a trustworthy partner...

Phil Gordon, a former national security adviser for Kamala Harris who attended the speech, said foreign officials approached him during the summit asking if Mr. Trump's position was now "permanent."

"Is this America?" Mr. Gordon said European officials asked him on Wednesday.

 

"And is the post World War II era definitively over - or is there any hope it comes back?"

President Trump speaking

with business leaders on Wednesday.

Credit: Doug Mills/The New York Times

But there was also a growing acceptance that a new world order is now emerging, right under their noses at a conference that for years was so emblematic of the old frameworks.

"They accept that under Trump this is a new world," said Mr. Gordon. "No one can deny that and even the Europeans who have been in denial now accept."

In his speech, Mr. Trump crystallized an idea central to that new world...

a searing disregard for the post World War II world order.

Mr. Trump suggested the European allies owed him Greenland.

He said that without the United States' efforts in World War II,

"you'd all be speaking German and a little Japanese perhaps," prompting moans from the crowd.

And while he said he would not use force to obtain Greenland - prompting some to breathe a sigh of relief - he did continued to frame Greenland as a debt that needed to be paid.

"You can say yes and we will be very appreciative or you can say no and we will remember," Mr. Trump said.

Mr. Trump took particular aim at Switzerland, the country hosting the summit, stunning some Swiss officials.

"They're only good because of us," Mr. Trump said of the Swiss as he celebrated his sweeping tariffs.

"I was really astonished," said Elisabeth Schneider-Schneiter, a member of the Swiss parliament.

 

"We are the hosts, we are the guarantee for his security from the airport to Davos, with public tax money spent, and I was convinced that we had resolved the trade issue."

Whether the attendees liked his speech or not - and many seemed to loathe it - Mr. Trump's appearance was the talk of the conference.

Outside the hall where Mr. Trump spoke, companies held watch parties to view his speech. Attendees tried to rearrange meetings in order not to miss it.

On the promenade, people live streamed his remarks while walking, before others later recounted the bombshells in the speech.

"Are we even important?" one asked.

President Trump

arriving by helicopter in Davos on Wednesday.

Credit: Doug Mills/The New York Times

Yet others spoke of a disaster averted, particularly after Mr. Trump said,

he was not interested in using force to acquire Greenland.

Senator Chris Coons, Democrat of Delaware, said he later encountered some European officials who told him,

"it could've been worse."

"It's remarkable when we've gotten to a place where we're saying it could've been worse because an American president took off the table the use of force against a NATO ally," Mr. Coons said.

Here and there, you could find warm support for the president.

After his speech, Mr. Trump spoke at a reception for business executives, financial chiefs and cryptocurrency leaders.

"We got great reviews," Mr. Trump told the crowd.

 

"I can't believe it, but we got good reviews of that speech. Usually they say he's a horrible dictator type person, but sometimes you need a dictator..."

Minutes later, as Mr. Trump finished speaking, he was met with loud applause.

And once Mr. Trump revoked some of his biggest threats on Wednesday evening, the mood across the conference edged closer to relief.

After Mr. Trump's decision to pullback on tariffs, some attendees texted their peers a single word:

"Taco!"

The term is short for 'Trump Always Chickens Out', a tongue-in-cheek quip adopted by some critics to describe Mr. Trump's tendency to threaten sweeping tariffs, only to pull them back.

"They've lived through so many cycles of this," Mr. Gordon said.

 

"You live to fight another day."

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Trump Takes Davos

by Sam Sifton

January 22, 2026

from NYTimes Website

Article also HERE...

At the World Economic Forum.

Credit: Doug Mills/The New York Times

We look at the news

coming out of the

World Economic Forum (WEF)

in Switzerland...

Could the United States end up in possession of Greenland?

After Trump gave a combative speech yesterday in Davos, Switzerland - at a forum that's meant to foster global collaboration - it certainly seemed possible.

Trump told the audience of world leaders, billionaires and other 'elites' that he would not send troops to seize Greenland from Denmark - but said he would take it all the same, threatening anyone who stood in his way.

"You can say yes and we will be very appreciative," Trump said, "or you can say no and we will remember."

The threats - punishing tariffs chief among them - had an almost immediate effect.

Just hours after the speech, Trump met with Mark Rutte, the leader of NATO, and afterward said they had devised a,

"framework of a future deal with respect to Greenland and, in fact, the entire Arctic Region."

Now he needn't impose tariffs on allies who refused to heed to his demands for control of Greenland, he said.

The announcement followed a NATO meeting yesterday in which top military officers from the alliance's member states discussed a compromise in which Denmark would give the United States sovereignty over small pockets of Greenlandic land, The Times reported.

The United States could build military bases on them. (Britain has a similar arrangement with its bases in Cyprus.)

Is that the framework of the deal Trump announced? NATO said in a statement that,

"negotiations between Denmark, Greenland and the United States will go forward aimed at ensuring that Russia and China never gain a foothold - economically or militarily - in Greenland."

A CNN reporter asked Trump if the deal he was pursuing would result in U.S. ownership of Greenland.

Trump hesitated before replying.

"It's a long-term deal. It's the ultimate long-term deal," he said.

How long?

"Infinite. There is no time limit. It's a deal that's forever."

President Trump

at a reception after his speech in Davos.

Credit: Doug Mills/The New York Times
 

The Reviews

Trump has said that the United States needs Greenland for its natural resources, for its national security and to contain Russia's and China's global ambitions.

In an interview with The Times, he also cited a "psychological" need to possess the island. Yesterday, though, he focused on national security.

Europeans in general have been unmoved by those desires.

Reactions to Trump's speech yesterday seemed to depend on nationality and profession, wrote Zolan Kanno-Youngs, a White House correspondent who reported from Davos:

European leaders sat stunned as Mr. Trump insulted their governments and questioned their reliability as allies.

 

Others grimaced as Mr. Trump claimed the European nations and Canada owed the United States a debt.

 

Some even scrambled after the speech to find and question current and former U.S. officials about the president's thinking and the future of the United States as a trustworthy partner.

As my colleague Evan Gorelick said,

"It's a confusing time to be a European leader."

The head of the Danish Parliament's defense committee reflected that view.

"I'm glad he's ruling out military force," he said.

 

"He insists he wants Greenland, but that's not new. Of course, we still insist that we are not handing over Greenland."

But corporate executives in the audience had a very different reaction, Zolan found.

At a reception after the speech for financial titans who in past years have been at the center of the conversation in Davos, Trump received a warm welcome.

"We got great reviews," Trump told them.

 

"I can't believe it, but we got good reviews of that speech. Usually they say he's a horrible dictator-type person, but sometimes you need a dictator."

Soon after, when Trump backed down from tariff threats, stocks surged.

 

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