Has Trump up-ended the Davos dominion?

It’s fitting that Donald Trump’s inauguration day coincides with the first day of the World Economic Forum’s infamous Davos conference. The new and the old world orders are, in theory, competing for attention. But this is not a competition. It’s not even close.

This year’s conference theme is “Collaboration for the Intelligent Age”: an idea that means little to nothing if the world’s largest economy — and leader in AI development — is not on board. And “collaboration” is hardly a word that suits the lead-up to inauguration day, as the forty-seventh president has been gearing up for the return to an “America First” policy, which is set to include the establishment of more trade barriers on his first day back in the Oval Office. It’s also expected to include a far more relaxed approach to AI innovation — breaking with the risk-adverse policies promoted, not just by Joe Biden, but by the WEF too.

Trump’s victory was a direct reproach of the Davos way

But it’s not just the theme of the conference to which Trump’s inauguration takes an axe. His return to the White House today shakes the core of what Davos represents: the old establishment pretending it has the solution to the world’s many problems, solutions that almost always involve a bigger state and bigger oversight. It’s a consensus that has been shattered in multiple elections since the pandemic, as voters across the West (realizing their governments can’t actually protect them from every harm), take a punt on someone new.

That distinction will be clear this afternoon. As the bureaucrats and celebrities mix and mingle at the Davos Opening Concert (described as the “best of classical music, electronic compositions and AI-generated visual experiences… under the theme of preserving the glaciers”), the insurgents will be found sitting in the audience for Trump’s inauguration in Washington, DC. This will include the emerging leader of Europe’s shift to the right, Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni, and South America’s revolutionary libertarian, Argentinian president Javier Milei, who has become the inspiration for Trump’s new Department for Government Efficiency (DoGE), having turned Argentina’s 123-year long fiscal deficit into a surplus in less than a year.

Milei is scheduled to appear at Davos as well — though if this contribution resembles his previous one, expect a spectacular rebuke of the conference’s left-wing economic bias and groupthink. Trump is also addressing the WEF with a pre-recorded message. Again, past contributions would suggest Trump will be keen to point out the vast differences between his ideology and the so-called “global consensus.”

And where will the world’s top innovators and tech entrepreneurs that Davos wants to influence be? They’ll also be in DC, listening to, if not dancing along to Trump’s celebrations, as Elon Musk was doing last night (Freddy Gray has the scoop on the evening’s events here). This victory is “just the start,” the X founder told the crowd at the pre-inauguration victory rally. The goal, he said, is to “set the foundation for America to be strong for a century.” Conversations about collaboration, taking place in a sleepy ski town, seem far from their minds.

Davos has had an image problem for quite some time: the annual gathering of the world’s elected officials and chief executives in one of Switzerland’s most luxurious ski towns creates the rare occasion when even the socialist left and the libertarian right can join together to point out the absurdities. Davos week has become the ode to crony capitalism, when some of the most protectionist and anti-competitive ideas are floated to make the world a slightly more controlled place. 

Trump may struggle from his own image problems from time to time, but his historic victory was a direct reproach of the Davos way. This shift in attitude will be on full display this week, as two competing visions for the future are broadcast to the world. It will quickly become clear that it’s Trump’s vision that dominates.