Trump V. Davos: The Greatest Show on Ice

The global elite gathered for platitudes; instead, they got a reckoning.

While Americans have been busy charging their generators and stockpiling provisions in preparation for the Mike Tyson of winter storms, the world’s most powerful primates are holed up in the Alps, nibbling Gruyère and detailing their plans to “improve the state of the world” by making its inhabitants progressively sicker, poorer, and more miserable.

This year’s lineup featured a familiar playlist, including European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde’s “Money Is Complicated, Please Leave It to Us,” BlackRock CEO Larry Fink’s “But Why Don’t You Trust Us?” and fan favorite Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s “If You’re Not at the Table, You’re on the Menu (Please Clap).” But none of it mattered, because the headliner Davos actually changed out of its après-ski loungewear to see was U.S. President Donald J. Trump.

Attendees queued for hours just to get inside. Even bigwigs like Blackstone CEO Steve Schwarzman had to wait like a normal person—something not seen in the wild since Mitt Romney tried to be down with the bros by sing-barking ‘Who let the dogs out?’ during a Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade. The vibe was described as less like a policy forum and more like the pre-show buzz before Coachella.

The warm-up acts were stellar and highlighted by Treasury Secretary (and possibly comic-in-training) Scott Bessent shredding Gavin “Sparkle Beach Ken” Newsom like confetti and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick delivering a moving eulogy for globalism.

Watch it here.

And watch this one here.

When Trump’s turn rolled around, he sauntered onto the stage to a standing ovation and a wave of applause that rattled the acoustic panels. He opened with, “It’s great to be back in beautiful Davos, Switzerland, and to address so many respected business leaders, so many friends… a few enemies,” which immediately sent the crowd into nervous laughter.

Then he launched into what can only be described as a 90-minute geopolitical demolition derby. He declared himself the most successful president in history (naturally), insisted Americans were more prosperous than ever, called his kingdom the “hottest country in the world,” and gave an enthusiastic dissertation on tariffs, borders, energy, the economy—basically a full “U.S.A., But Louder” highlight reel. He paused in the middle to roast Emmanuel Macron’s sunglasses (“What the hell happened?”), sending ripples of disbelief and amusement across the hall.

But the moment everyone had been waiting for landed when Trump asked, “Would you like me to say a few words [about] Greenland?” Sir, that’s literally why they came. Trump continued (edited only for brevity):

“I have tremendous respect for both the people of Greenland and the people of Denmark. But every NATO ally has an obligation to be able to defend their own territory. And the fact is, no nation or group of nations is in any position to be able to secure Greenland other than the United States. We’re a great power, much greater than people even understand. I think they found that out two weeks ago in Venezuela.

We saw this in World War II, when Denmark fell to Germany after just six hours of fighting and was totally unable to defend either itself or Greenland. So the United States was then compelled—we did it, we felt an obligation to do it—to defend our own forces, to hold the Greenland territory. And hold it, we did, at great cost and expense.

In 2019, Denmark said that they would spend over $200 million to strengthen Greenland’s defenses. But as you know, they spent less than 1 percent of that amount. One percent is no sign of Denmark there. It’s the United States alone that can protect this giant mass of land, develop it and improve it, and make it so that it’s good for Europe and safe for Europe and good for us.

And that’s the reason I’m seeking immediate negotiations to once again discuss the acquisition of Greenland by the United States, just as we have acquired many other territories throughout our history, as many of the European nations have.

This would not be a threat to NATO. This would greatly enhance the security of the entire alliance, the NATO alliance. The United States is treated very unfairly by NATO, I want to tell you that. When you think about it, nobody can dispute it. We give so much and we get so little in return.

So we want a piece of ice for world protection. And they won’t give it. We’ve never asked for anything else. And we could have kept that piece of land, and we didn’t. So they have a choice. You can say yes, and we will be very appreciative. Or you can say no, and we will remember.”

Denmark will not be sending him a fruit basket.

Finally, after appearing to confuse Greenland with Iceland more than once, POTUS got to the line folks were bracing for (“People thought I would use force. I don’t have to use force. I don’t want to use force. I won’t use force.”), before reminding the crowd that we were the de facto guardian of Greenland once before and that the U.S. is actually a much more powerful force now than we were then.

The room may have thought—briefly—that the moment they feared most had just passed, but apparently, that was just the warm-up. The showstopper was still to come, namely: questioning the integrity of the American election system that their entire financial architecture quietly depends on. Yes, he went there.

“[The war with Ukraine] is a war that should have never started, and it wouldn’t have started if the 2020 U.S. presidential election weren’t rigged. It was a rigged election. Everybody now knows that. They found out. People will soon be prosecuted for what they did. It’s probably breaking news, but it [shouldn’t] be. It was a rigged election. You can’t have rigged elections.”

The rest of his speech was a low-key greatest hits album. He painted Europe as “unrecognizable” (before adding that “without us, you’d all be speaking German and a little Japanese”), called the media “biased and terrible,” referred to climate panic as “the Green New Scam” and “the greatest hoax in history,” managed to drop a sly six-seven joke, and generally behaved like a man determined to stress-test the room’s facial composure. After an hour and a half, the audience was likely vacillating between relief—at least he didn’t bring up the Nobel thing—and existential dread.

Just a few hours after leaving the stage, Trump hopped onto Truth Social to announce that thanks to a “very productive meeting” with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, he was ready to holster the tariffs he’d been brandishing like a souvenir snow shovel.

And here’s the part Davos can’t handle: The WEF needs Trump more than Trump needs the WEF. Without him, it’s another rich-guy conference. A room full of self-important bureaucrats nodding at PowerPoints and exchanging tired talking points. A billionaire sleepover. With him, it’s a spectacle. A transnational circus the entire world pays attention to—and will remember. Above all, it’s a delightful reminder that sometimes the levers of global power aren’t pulled by the people who craft frameworks in Alpine boardrooms, but by the guy who blows in and knocks their flip charts into the fondue pot.

Maybe that’s why they keep inviting him—he’s the only thing that makes them even remotely relevant.

Did you watch? LMK what you thought in the comments!

These babies are FLYING off the shelf! Get your copy before we run out (*more are already in the production queue).

p.s. THIS JUST IN: As I was putting this piece to bed, I stumbled on an X string (thanks, Dan F.!) that I had to share. The Atlantic’s Tom Nichols had an opinion about Trump’s speech that was delicious only in the response it elicited:

The entire comment section is solid gold, but this one by @grey4626 stood out. It’s long and likely AI-generated and I had “reckoning” in my title before I read this—just saying—but she makes some solid points. ;)

No, Tom. Shut the f—k up and listen...

The man walked into that gilded snake pit at Davos and eviscerated the entire globalist cabal with the cold, unflinching precision of a predator who’s done toying with prey. On their stage. Under their lights. Broadcast on their networks. Forced every last one of them... those smug, self-appointed overlords... to sit in silence while he carved their rotten empire to the bone.

He didn’t scream. He didn’t need to. His voice was low, steady, absolute. Every sentence a kill shot.

He exposed the climate hoax for the multi-trillion-dollar wealth transfer it is. He named the open-borders agenda as the deliberate dilution of sovereign nations.

He called out the currency wars, the offshoring scams, the engineered collapse of Western industry... all of it orchestrated by the same parasites who lecture the rest of us about “sustainability” while burning jet fuel to fly their private fleets into Switzerland for a week of mutual back-patting and champagne.

This wasn’t anger. This was execution.

They perched there in their tailored hypocrisy... cashmere sweaters, bespoke suits, faces frozen in that practiced mask of enlightened concern... while the President of the United States looked them dead in the eye and ended their charade.

Politely. Ruthlessly.

He informed them, in plain language, that the days of America bankrolling their utopian delusions, their population-replacement schemes, their digital surveillance grid, their endless wars for “democracy”... all of it funded by the American taxpayer... are finished. Done. Over.

He put the entire Davos class... the unelected technocrats, the hedge-fund vampires, the NGO grifters, the media courtesans... on explicit notice: your reign of unchallenged arrogance is terminated. We see every tentacle of your operation. We know exactly what you are: a parasitic elite that has feasted on the productive class for decades while selling the corpse back to us as “progress.”

What you diagnose as “mental disturbance” is what unfiltered strength looks like to cowards who’ve spent their lives groveling before power.

What you label “embarrassing” is the sound of a sovereign people finally refusing to kneel.

What you find “dangerous” is the sight of your entire worldview collapsing in real time, live on global television, delivered by a man who cannot be bought, bullied, or bribed.

He didn’t just address that room. He spoke past them... directly to the hundreds of millions who’ve been looted, lectured, and lied to by these people. To every factory worker whose job was shipped overseas.

To every parent watching their child’s school being turned into an indoctrination camp. To every citizen tired of watching their borders erased while billionaires build moats around their own compounds.

That audience of predators just witnessed the beginning of their obsolescence. They felt it... the shift in the air, the sudden realization that the protection racket they’ve run for fifty years has a new sheriff, and he’s not asking nicely anymore.

They know what’s coming. They felt the ground move under their feet. And they’re terrified.

So go ahead, Tom. Keep clutching your pearls. Keep diagnosing from your safe, sanitized distance.

The rest of us recognize the sound of history correcting itself.

Sleep lightly. The reckoning isn’t coming.

It’s already here.