Davos is Trump Day! The White House said the US president was once again en route to the World Economic Forum after his plane was ordered to return home due to “minor electrical issues.”
By changing planes, Trump unintentionally escalated tensions at the Swiss mountain resort. Participants were looking forward to this week’s speeches, scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.
Once a gathering of the world’s greatest change-makers and change-makers, this year it has become a Trump show with audiences around the world holding their breath.
The reason is obvious. Because transatlantic relations have reached breaking point.
Trump’s renewed push to bring Greenland under U.S. control and his threat to impose punitive tariffs on European allies who oppose the effort are shaking decision-makers on both sides of the Atlantic to their core.
What initially began as a strategic debate over Arctic security quickly escalated into open conflict over sovereignty, economic coercion, and the future of the historic partnership between the United States and Europe.
And not a day goes by that President Trump doesn’t step up his rhetoric about Greenland, trying to convince the world that he is serious about annexing territory from a treaty ally without compromise.
“Spirit of dialogue”
The most important question at this year’s Davos meeting, whose motto is “the spirit of dialogue,” is how world leaders will deal with President Trump’s Greenland ambitions, which many still consider a sick joke.
“Most people still doubt that Mr. Trump is serious about this and that he will blow up NATO and start a war with Europe,” Harold Hong-joo Koh, a professor of international law at Yale University and a former legal adviser to the US State Department, told Euronews.
And while European leaders at the World Economic Forum are increasingly taking Trump seriously, they are still struggling to find the right response.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on the forum’s main stage on Tuesday: “Putting us into a dangerous downward spiral will only help the very adversaries who are keen to keep us both out of our strategic vision. Our response will therefore be unflinching, united and proportionate.”
“We consider the American people not just allies, but friends,” von der Leyen said.
But Trump isn’t just attending Davos; he’s leading the largest U.S. delegation in history to the World Economic Forum, along with five Cabinet members and other senior officials.
Compare this with Denmark’s decision not to send any participants. The move is widely seen as disrespectful to the US president.
The U.S. delegation includes Secretary of State Marco Rubio, special envoy Steve Witkoff and President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, setting the stage for high-profile discussions not only on Greenland but also on Ukraine, Venezuela, Gaza and Iran.
President Trump’s new threat to Iran
The latter was the subject of escalating rhetoric from President Trump in response to dire warnings from Iran’s leadership before leaving office.
“I left a notice that if something happens, I’m going to blow up. The whole country is going to be blown up,” Trump told US television station NewsNation.
“I would definitely hit them hard, but I have very strong instructions: no matter what happens, they will be wiped off the face of the earth,” he added.
These words did not reassure the Danish government. Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said on Tuesday that they “cannot rule out” US military intervention in the Arctic.
However, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who arrived in Davos ahead of Trump, called on European countries to “sit back and wait” for Trump to arrive.
“Take a deep breath and don’t have the knee-jerk anger that we saw,” Bessent told reporters Wednesday.
“Why can’t they sit back and wait for President Trump to get here and hear his case? Because they think they’ll be persuaded.”
