Donald Trump will address the global elite at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Wednesday as a diplomatic crisis over Greenland spirals.
Denmark boycotted the conference on Monday after the president threatened tariffs on eight European allies unless they agree to sell him the mineral-rich Arctic territory.
Trump’s confrontational approach marks a stark break with the Davos forum’s traditional emphasis on global cooperation and multilateralism.
‘This is the death of Davos,’ Mark Blyth, a political economist at Brown University, told the New York Times. ‘It has no relevance, none whatsoever. And the bigger question is, did it ever have relevance outside the chattering classes that were embedded in the status quo to start with?’
Blyth added: ‘[Trump] is punching them in the head and telling them who’s in charge. He’s informing them that, basically, unless they align with him, they no longer matter.’
The president will arrive at the Swiss resort on Wednesday where he will deliver a keynote address ’emphasizing that the US and Europe must leave behind economic stagnation and the policies that caused it,’ according to the White House.
Trump is taking the largest delegation ever sent by Washington, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
It comes as the EU is now preparing retaliatory tariffs on $107.7 billion in US goods, or potentially denying America access to the EU market, the Financial Times reported. European shares fell sharply on Monday, while Wall Street was closed for the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday.
More than 3,000 delegates from over 130 countries will attend this year, including 64 heads of state and government. The list also includes several heads of G7 nations, with changes in American foreign policy under Trump in sharp focus.
Ukraine’s leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy will appear at the conference in person, hoping to meet Trump and sign new security guarantees for a potential ceasefire deal with Russia.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s special envoy Kirill Dmitriev will also travel to Davos and hold meetings with members of the US delegation, two sources with knowledge of the visit told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
Meanwhile, national security advisers from a number of countries are due to meet on the sidelines of the event on Monday, with Greenland among the subjects on the agenda, diplomatic sources said.
One European diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Greenland had been added to the agenda of the previously scheduled meeting after Trump’s tariff announcement.
The president said on Saturday he was imposing a 10 percent levy starting on February 1, rising to 25 percent in June, unless there’s a deal for the ‘purchase of Greenland.’
Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Finland would face the tariff, Trump said in a Truth Social post, after they sent troops to Greenland.
Trump is expected to meet global business leaders, including CEOs in financial services, crypto and consulting, at a reception after his speech on Wednesday. The agenda is not clear.
One CEO simply had ‘a reception in honor of President Donald J Trump’ scheduled in their diary, while another said their understanding was that global CEOs had been invited, not just those from the United States. One of the sources said the invitations had come from the White House.
Trump’s peace-making credentials also will be on the table. An announcement looms about his ‘Board of Peace’ for Gaza, and he and his administration are expected to have bilateral meetings in the warren of side rooms at the Congress Center.
The board created for the Israeli territory became mired in controversy over the weekend after it emerged that Trump is demanding a $1 billion fee for members.
Britain’s former prime minister Tony Blair, who is part of its ‘founding executive board’, denied any role in the price tag.
Russia’s Putin is among the leaders of 60 nations who were invited last week to join as ‘founding members.’
Trump’s peace envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, the architects of the Gaza truce, will also join Washington’s Davos delegation.
The forum will be without its founder, Klaus Schwab, who hosted the first event in Davos 55 years ago focusing on business, only to see it since balloon into a catchall extravaganza.
He stepped down in April. New co-chairs Larry Fink, the head of investment firm BlackRock, and Andre Hoffman, vice chair of pharmaceuticals firm Roche, are in charge.
