Davos Was the Beginning of the End for Trump

It's all downhill for here for the America's aging mad king

This past week was momentous on several levels.

I say that with acute awareness that drawing grand conclusions about the consequences of events as they happen is a fool’s errand, the business of TV anchors and sportscasters who are far too eager to proclaim “history was made today.”

But sometimes—after a massive battlefield defeat or a major political upheaval or an especially significant natural disaster—it is clear the world will not be the same again.

Donald Trump began the week high on his own supply. Completing the first year of his second term, he had succeeded in becoming the most powerful American president in history. Yes, he had the assistance of a corrupt and profoundly misguided extremist majority on the U.S. Supreme Court and a spineless, visionless U.S. Congress. But there is no denying that he was implementing his second-term agenda at home and abroad with surprising speed. Institutions were gutted. Enemies were targeted. History was rewritten. Unprecedented corruption was both overlooked and had reached the scale of a major multinational business.

He had developed a mythology that he was a peacemaker that at least some of the American people believed (even if he actually played that role in almost none of the cases for which he was claiming credit). He projected American power in small bursts that were essentially unchallenged and as part of initiatives that had America withdrawing from risky situations in the blinking of an eye.

He spoke of grand plans, conquests even, with the bravura of a man who seemingly did not remember his lifetime of failures and defeats.

A week ago, he was boasting of a new doctrine by which he would control the Western Hemisphere and making demands that the U.S. be handed Greenland by Denmark simply because Trump wanted it.

He flew off to the World Economic Forum in Davos expecting the event would mark a kind of ratification of his role as the world’s latest emperor. Newspaper headlines supported his thesis, explaining that the entire event had been organized Trump-centrically on Trumpian terms to serve the Trumpiest of objectives.

But even before Trump arrived in the Swiss village that is as picturesque and pleasant for 51 weeks of each year as it is as odious and choked with ego and excess for one, there were signs that trouble was brewing.

Trump’s advance guard, mimicking their boss’ overweening arrogance and head-ache= inducing ignorance, were met with resistance and ridicule. Trump’s demands to annex Greenland were also recognized as a profound threat to NATO, to the Western alliance more broadly, to Europe, and to the rule of law in the world and the mood in Davos was one of anger and Trump-skepticism.

A Fiasco in the Alps

When Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick channeled Trump before a crowd at a Black Rock event on Tuesday, the crowd booed him and senior European officials walked out on him when he asserted that Europe was essentially dead. They did not much like his recitation of other MAGA talking points from asserting that the world should embrace burning more coal to the nonsensical assertion that Trump was actually making the U.S. economy stronger with is tariffs and exploding fiscal deficits and his efforts to undermine democracy in America. (The stock market did not like Trump’s Greenland saber-rattling either and gave him a swift kick in his sensitive parts to start off the week.)

The smarm of other Trump officials, notably Secretary of Smarm Scott Bessent, was also seen as a turn=off because—well, let’s be honest, lies inside condescension wrapped in smarm is just not a confection anyone finds appetizing or even digestible. (Which is saying something at the World Economic Forum, an event known for decades for its really grim food offerings.)

Worse still for Trump were concrete signs that many of the leaders of the countries present had had enough of the American president’s bullying and general obnoxiousness. This was illustrated with exceptional clarity when Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney delivered an address in which he declared that the alliances and global order that had been the foundation of much of world peace for that past eighty years had “ruptured.” He eschewed the language of capitulation and flattery and minimizing Trumpian offenses that had been common in most public statements about Trump in the past year. He spoke in hard truths. Perhaps his most searing insight was that the global integration that had been touted for years as lifting all nations was being weaponized and used as leverage to advance the agenda of the world’s demented Sasquatch.

Ok. He didn’t call Trump a demented Sasquatch. Not in so many words anyway. He did not even refer to him by name. When Carney said if you’re not at the table these days then you’re on the menu, everyone knew exactly what he was talking about and when he called for the world’s “middle powers” to band together because solidarity was the only way to stop the afore-unmentioned demented Sasquatch, people were energized and hopeful.

Indeed, Mark Carney got one of the very, very few standing ovations in the more than 50 year history of the World Economic Forum. All. Because. He. Essentially. Told. Trump. To. Go. To. Hell.

It was a tour de force. It was as intellectually well-reasoned and argued as one would expect from the brilliant former head of both the Bank of England and of Canada’s central bank.

But it was also the nerd kicking the ass of the big hulking bully on the schoolyard. It was David smacking Goliath in the forehead with a stone and ending the battle before the giant had another chance to stomp forward. It was Victor Laszlo getting the band to play the Marseillaise to drown out the Nazis in “Casablanca.”

You may think I’m being melodramatic. But if you recognize what a menace Trump is and the costs to the world of failing to stand up to him, then you will agree with me that it was an important watershed.

That became clearer in the wake of Trump’s own speech.

Not only did it contain elements of Trump’s signature incoherence and racism, Trump’s speech was so contemptuous of America’s most important allies that everyone I have spoken to who heard it came away suggesting that it marked the end of an era. How could Europeans ever rely on America as an ally if the American people could elect a man like Trump? How could they not view America as having gone from being their most important friend to being one of the greatest threats they face?

A Formula for Defeating Trump

Even though Trump said during the speech that he would not use force to claim Greenland, he made it absolutely clear during the speech (and in remarks afterward) that he did not believe the U.S. gained from the alliance and that he viewed Europeans as freeloaders and subordinates to the United States. (His minimization this week of European sacrifices on behalf of America post 9/11 were so offensive even the most timid regional leaders, like U.K. Prime Minister-ish Keir Starmer, felt compelled to speak out against them in the strongest terms.)

Even though Trump later said the Greenland issue was resolved by a concept of a plan that would be revealed in “two weeks” (a Trumpian euphemism for an indefinite future that never comes), the damage was done.

Admittedly, Trump had been doing damage since his first term in office. He has also been a NATO-skeptic. He had already greatly damaged the alliance by withdrawing the vast majority of U.S. support for Ukraine. His tariff madness had blown up in the international trading system but also sent the message that the U.S. was an erratic, selfish and unreliable partner. His insults flowed steadily.

But until this week, Europe had essentially smiled and said, “Please sir, may I have another?”

But then came a Greenland threat that Europeans saw as a direct military threat to them and as an effort that could blow up NATO (and maybe was intended to do just that.) And then came the ugliness of this past week.

And the die was cast. They would have to turn the page. They would have to enter a new era of independence.

Carney’s rallying cry was clearly not a lone voice in the wilderness. He spoke for almost all of the major Western powers.

That became clear when, in the wake of Trump’s speech in which he threatened to punish Europe with tariffs if they did not hand over Greenland (or Iceland, he was not sure which), the EU showed a hitherto unexpressed resolve and unity. They said that they were withdrawing from the trade deal struck with the U.S. last year (which itself was an attempt to role back Trump’s tariffs).

In my view, this was the blow that brought Trump to his knees. It was this unified, strong decision and Europe’s clear statement that they were willing to fight fire with fire and that they would not be bullied that caused Trump to fold on Greenland.

The deal he has allegedly struck…or conceptually paid lip service to…will, as far as anyone can tell, just ratify the status quo. It is unlikely to give the U.S. more than prior treaties—like the one from 1951—have done.

That may seem like a wash but its not. Because while the U.S. gains nothing what it and what the world have lost is immeasurable. A vital alliance is shattered. The trust of America’s closest friends is gone.

In a dark irony, the big threat that Trump argued warranted America’s takeover of Greenland—a threat of Russian and Chinese strategic gains—was actually realized as a result of Trump’s alleged measure to protect against it. (I say alleged because having studied Trump for years and having spoken to many of his closest advisors from the past, I believe destroying NATO and assisting his friends in Russia has always been a Trump priority…perhaps his number one international priority other than enriching his own family.)

If there is any good news in this it is that the Europeans and the nations of the world have learned what American observers of Trump have long known: Cooperating with him, flattering him, trying to cut deals with him, will only lead to tears. He always…always…betrays those he works with, those he is close to, his partners, his family, his supporters, his donors, his defenders…every one. All of them. Always.

The only way to deal with Trump is to stand up to him. He does not like being challenged. He folds when confronted with strength of any sort.

While, sadly, many in America’s political establishment (in both parties) do not seem to understand this or want to understand it, increasingly in the private sector and in the international community (China understood first) and among effective activists, the reality is sinking in. Unity plus strength plus guts is the formula for defeating Trump.

A Real Bright Line in History

This week was the most prominent demonstration of those principles in action. While Trump may not realize it, its lessons are clear and will inspire others. This week also saw further evidence of the sources of his prior strength being sapped. Time and aging were certainly playing their role. He is an increasingly frail, increasinly mentally unfit old man now. His initiatives and policies are widely unpopular in the U.S. He is a lame duck. A battle to succeed him is already taking shape within his party. He is likely to suffer massive defeats in this November’s elections. The courts are defeating some of his efforts. The incompetence of the team around him is undermining others. Companies (see Exxon) are standing up to him. So too are at least a few Republicans. (And also this week: Jack Smith reminded us of a core truth: Trump’s crimes against the U.S. are manifold, serious and provable beyond a reasonable doubt.)

Last November I wrote an article in which I predicted 2026 would be a nightmarish year for Trump—in part because of many of the reasons stated in the preceding paragraph.

This week has accelerated that process. It is historic because it marks the end of a productive chapter in the history of trans-Atlantic relations and, face it, the end of American leadership in the world as we have known it. But it is also of great consequence because it marks a massive, ugly, public defeat of Trump and the establishment for all to see of the means by which the menace who is America’s president can be contained and, where necessary, defeated.