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Getty Images<\/p>\nFaisal IslamEconomics editor<\/p>\n
Getty Images<\/p>\n
I was in the room when President Donald Trump entered and it’s fair to say he got a good welcome from the crowd, certainly at the beginning. A standing ovation.<\/p>\n
On top of that, there was an astonishing scrum to try to get in, with many turned away – even heads of state.<\/p>\n
The security was unbelievable, not letting even some of the most famous attendees in or out of the hall.<\/p>\n
Minutes into the speech, Trump was keeping his cool – even dropping in phrases about wanting the UK “to do great”.<\/p>\n
What some thought would be the day on which the US president laid down the laws of his new global economy was filled more with grandfatherly advice.<\/p>\n
It was far from the mildly menacing tone of his social media posts claiming that Greenland will be America’s.<\/p>\n
But which one is the real Donald Trump? Has he heard how badly some of his rhetoric has gone down?<\/p>\n
As I entered, I was told of an astonishing event last night where Trump’s Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told the audience that, in terms of Europe’s economy, “you’re dead”.<\/p>\n
There was a walkout. Might there have been one today? He seemed to be trying to avoid that.<\/p>\n
Ros Atkins on… Trump’s Davos speech claims<\/p>\n
The Speech goes rather dark<\/p>\n
At first, I thought Trump was trying on a diplomatic front, perhaps having heard some of the significant criticism levelled against him and trying to sound mellow.<\/p>\n
He talked in friendly terms about the western allies that had been most perturbed by his social media posts.<\/p>\n
He even acknowledged that he probably shouldn’t speak about the controversial issue of Greenland – which he has repeatedly vowed to take over.<\/p>\n
But, almost as though he could not help it, the speech seemed to take a dark turn.<\/p>\n
First he described America’s role helping Greenland in the past, including being friendly to Denmark.<\/p>\n
But he then insulted Europe’s biggest economy, saying everyone in the hall “would be speaking German” if it wasn’t for the US. <\/p>\n
And then it came. He announced he was seeking immediate negotiations for the USA to acquire Greenland.<\/p>\n
A negotiated settlement, he said. No force required. But the US needed “full title”.<\/p>\n
“We want this land” to build the “greatest Golden Dome ever built”, he said.<\/p>\n
And he warned Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney about his words a day earlier, though stressing that he would also use Greenland to defend Canada.<\/p>\n
“I’m asking for a piece of ice… it’s a very small ask.”<\/p>\n
It was incredible to see this said out loud.<\/p>\n
Mixed reactions in the room<\/p>\n
There was high security, high stakes and high tension in the Alps for the arrival of the would-be sheriff of the world, brandishing his new rules.<\/p>\n
The reaction in the room ranged.<\/p>\n
The president’s attempts at charm seemed to win him polite applause. But as he went from rigged elections to his annoyance at other leaders’ Davos speeches, some sat in disbelief.<\/p>\n
Even though he promised not to invade Greenland, many were stunned by his attempts to persuade Europe to hand over the territory.<\/p>\n
Gavin Newsom, the Democratic governor of California said the speech was “TACO” Tuesday, a reference to the “Trump always chickens out” catchphrase used to mock the president.<\/p>\n
He argued Trump had backed down after robust pushback from leaders Emmanuel Macron and Mark Carney.<\/p>\n
A key Republican senator, Thomas Tillis, said the president’s pursuit of Greenland, even a negotiated annexation, would not have the backing of Congress.<\/p>\n
So while Trump attempted to dial down tensions, he still criticised allies – including personal attacks on leaders.<\/p>\n
And while he promised not to invade Greenland, he still said it will be part of the new America – and that the world should thank him for it.<\/p>\n
The speech may have eventually come to an end, but we will be talking about it for a long time to come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Faisal IslamEconomics editor Getty Images I was in the room when President Donald Trump entered and it’s fair…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":428752,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[64,63,99,164],"class_list":{"0":"post-428751","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-economy"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=428751"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428751\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/428752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=428751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=428751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=428751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}