World Economic Forum
Back for Business: Trump threatens the business elite with tariffs
AI, crypto, oil: Donald Trump paints a glorious picture of the US economy in Davos. Anyone who doesn’t take part will have to pay. Does he really have as many “friends” in the audience as he says?
US President Donald Trump has a message that is as simple as it is threatening to the business elite in Davos: “Manufacture your product in America and we will offer you some of the lowest taxes. But if you don’t manufacture your product in America, which is your right , then you will simply have to pay a duty.”
Three days after taking office, the 78-year-old joined the World Economic Forum, the top geo-economic meeting in the Swiss Alps, via video. For days now, people have been talking about little else than the new US president, his threat of import tariffs on goods from China, Mexico, Canada and the EU – and his billion-dollar push for artificial intelligence.
Humility is not Trump’s thing
It is Trump’s first appearance on such a large international stage since he took office – and the expectations are huge: “The importance of American leadership and your personal leadership role is fundamental and outstanding,” said the founder of the World Economic Forum, Klaus Schwab, welcoming the US President.
Trump speaks for almost fifteen minutes to the CEOs and other powerful people in the packed congress hall. He then takes a few friendly questions from company bosses. Modesty is not his thing: “They say that since the election there has been a light shining all over the world,” says Trump. “And even countries that we are not particularly friends with are happy because they understand that there is a future and how great the future will be under our leadership.” The message: “America is back and open for business.”
He immediately provides a pointed example when he announces investments totaling $600 billion from Saudi Arabia and adds: “But I will ask the crown prince, who is a fantastic guy, to round the sum up to about a trillion.” In return, Saudi Arabia can hope that Trump will dedicate his first foreign trip to the country – at least that’s what Trump himself unabashedly mentioned. Assuming the Saudis spend enough money in America.
The USA should become a superpower in industry and AI
The World Economic Forum wants to hear what Trump wants to do to revive the economy and address global challenges. His answer is that Americans are already more confident economically than they have been in many, many decades.
The US President announces that he will massively develop oil and gas. “Not only will this reduce the cost of virtually all goods and services, but it will also make the United States a manufacturing superpower and the artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency capital of the world.” Tariffs would pour hundreds of billions and even trillions of dollars into government coffers.
Is Trump a “Davos Man”?
Many of his friends are sitting in the audience, says Trump – and he actually wants to come back to Davos himself in the coming years. But Trump and the WEF are also a contentious relationship. Because “America first” is pretty much the opposite of what has been propagated in the Davos congress center for days. The founding idea of the World Economic Forum is about globalization, open markets, a world coming together. The political elite here preaches the benefits of an integrated global economy.
The political scientist Samuel Huntington once called this breed of people “Davos Man.” Donald Trump is not a “Davos Man” when it comes to economic policy. And yet it still fits in here – just less in the congress center than on the promenade, where the business elite has converted shops into mini-business headquarters. Trump, the self-proclaimed “deal maker” with an instinct for tough business, would be more at home here.
As an entrepreneur, Trump was not welcome in Davos
Even if he is only connected via video this time: Trump knows what makes Davos tick. As an entrepreneur, the real estate mogul was never invited to the World Economic Forum. At the time, he complained about the elite circles, the disciples of globalization, who were lining their pockets at the expense of the American worker. As US President, Trump has already taken part in the prestigious meeting in the Swiss winter sports resort twice: in 2018 and 2020.
This year, the mood in conference rooms and back rooms is ambivalent when the conversation turns to Trump. The AI industry is omnipresent here, whether Google, Microsoft, Palantir or dozens of developers and companies from Asia. Here, people are less afraid of tariffs than they are hoping for benefits through tax cuts and the dismantling of regulations. The bottom line is that the “Trump package” will be a good one, they say.
Politicians fear trade war
The tone of politicians is completely different: EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen warned Trump right at the start of a trade war with Europe. The EU would probably respond to Trump’s import tariffs with counter tariffs. The German Economics Minister Robert Habeck warned that the EU urgently needs to become more independent from the USA and get its own economy going.
“On the surface, Trump is good for the economy,” Trump’s former short-term communications director in the White House analyzed in an interview with Politico. Anthony Scaramucci knows the president, even though he was his communications chief for only a few days in 2017. And he remembers that in his first term in office, Trump made most of his decisions “literally through the prism of the stock market,” according to the former Wall Street banker who is now positioning himself against Trump.
But times have changed. Last but not least, Trump’s US territorial ambitions in Canada, Greenland and Panama are causing doubt and uncertainty in the markets, in the executive suites – and in the corridors of the World Economic Forum.
dpa
Source: Stern
