Trump declares end of U.S. stewardship of postwar economic order at Davos

President Trump used a keynote speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, to pronounce last rites on American leadership of the liberal democratic order forged after World War II, delivering a long address described as bombastic, aggrieved and self-congratulatory. He said the United States was done offering its markets and military protection to European allies he called freeloaders, vowed to advance his trade war and framed tariffs as the price of admission to a market of 300 million consumers.

He declared, “Everybody took advantage of the United States.” Later in the day he said in a social media post that he would not use tariffs to try to wrest control of Greenland from Denmark while talks continued, an announcement the report said spared the island’s sovereignty but did not undo the broader thrust of his remarks.

The speech was set against a backdrop of comparisons with China’s pitch to the forum. The article recalls President Xi Jinping’s 2017 Davos address, in which he likened protectionism to “locking oneself in a dark room,” and notes long‑standing skepticism about China’s claim to responsible superpower status: the Chinese government has subsidized manufacturing that has affected jobs abroad, its security apparatus has jailed dissidents, labor organizers and journalists, and its military has menaced Taiwan and neighbors.

Key Topics

World, Donald Trump, World Economic Forum, Tariffs, China, Greenland