{"id":434938,"date":"2026-01-24T18:18:20","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T18:18:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/434938\/"},"modified":"2026-01-24T18:18:20","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T18:18:20","slug":"how-mark-carney-left-donald-trump-in-the-dust-in-davos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/434938\/","title":{"rendered":"How Mark Carney left Donald Trump in the dust in\u00a0Davos"},"content":{"rendered":"

The meeting and venue were the same, but the style and tone of the two most anticipated keynote speeches at the World Economic Forum<\/a> in the Swiss town of Davos could not have been more different. <\/p>\n

On Tuesday, January 20, Canadian prime minister Mark Carney<\/a> addressed the assembled political and business leaders as one of them: a national leader with deep expertise in finance.<\/p>\n

He spoke about a \u201crupture\u201d in the world order and the duty of nations to come together through appropriate coalitions for the benefit of all. It was a paean to multilateralism, but one that recognized that the US would no longer provide the glue to hold alliances together. Carney never mentioned the US by name in his speech, instead talking of \u201cgreat powers\u201d and \u201chegemons.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carney\u2019s quiet, measured and evocative case-making demonstrated his ability to be the leader France\u2019s Emmanuel Macron would like to be and the UK\u2019s Keir Starmer is too cautious to be. He was clear, unequivocal and unafraid of the bully below his southern border. In standing up to the US president, Donald Trump, he appeared every inch the statesperson. <\/p>\n

\"YouTube
\nMark Carney delivers his speech at Davos, January 21 2026.<\/p>\n

Then, on January 21, Trump took the stage<\/a>. There was none of Carney\u2019s self-awareness and nor did he read the room recognising the strengths, talents and economic power of the audience. Trump started with humour, noting he was talking to \u201cfriends and a few enemies.\u201d<\/p>\n

But he quickly shifted to a riff on the greatest hits of the first year of Trump 2.0 with the usual weaving away from his script down the rabbit holes of his perceived need for vengeance. Joe Biden still takes up far too much of Trump\u2019s head space, but the next hour could be summed up as: \u201cTrump great: everyone else bad.\u201d<\/p>\n

The president is the most amazing hype man for his own greatness, but it\u2019s a zero-sum game. For him to win, others must lose, whether that\u2019s the UK, Macron or the unnamed female prime minister of Switzerland whom he mocked for the poverty of her tariff negotiation skills. It\u2019s worth noting Switzerland has no prime minister and its current president is a man.<\/p>\n

While Carney was at pains to connect with his audience of allies, Trump exists happily in his own world where support \u2013 and sovereign territory \u2013 can be bought, and fealty trumps all. As ever, Trump played fast and loose with facts, wrapping real successes, aspirations and his unique view of the truth into a paean to himself.<\/p>\n

He actually returned to his script to make the case for taking Greenland. The case is built on a notional need for \u201cnational and international security\u201d, underscored by pointing out the territory is \u201cin our hemisphere.\u201d<\/p>\n

As so many commentators have said, collective security will do the job<\/a> Trump insists that only the US can \u2013 and won\u2019t require Denmark to cede territory. But Trump is sounding ever-less the rational actor.<\/p>\n

Contrasting visions<\/p>\n

The coming year is one of inflection for Trump\u2019s presidency. His Republican party may well lose control of the House and possibly the Senate in the November midterms<\/a>, which would severely curtail his ability to impose his will unfettered.<\/p>\n

Trump is focused on his legacy and demands he\u2019s up there with former US presidents Thomas Jefferson<\/a>, James Monroe<\/a>, James Polk<\/a> and William McKinley<\/a>, expanding the American empire and its physical footprint. This may be a step too far, even for a president with such vast economic and military power. <\/p>\n

\"YouTube
\nDonald Trump\u2019 delivers his speech at Davos, January 21 2026.<\/p>\n

Carney\u2019s speech played well both at home and around the world. His line, \u201cIf we\u2019re not at the table, we\u2019re on the menu,\u201d clearly resonated with his fellow western leaders. His vision for how \u201cthe power of legitimacy, integrity and rules will remain strong if we choose to wield them together\u201d, also offered a positive vision in a dark time.<\/p>\n

Trump told the audience that he would not use \u201cexcessive strength of force\u201d to acquire Greenland. But, ever the real estate developer, he demanded \u201cright, title and ownership\u201d with an ominous threat: \u201cYou can say no \u2013 we will remember.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Trump laid out his grand vision of protecting and cherishing the rich and aligning nations to do America\u2019s bidding, it was in stark contrast to Carney. The hyperbole and self-aggrandizing, the insults and threats, and the singular vision of seeing the world only through the personal impact it has on him mark the US president out as remarkable, even exceptional.<\/p>\n

But is this the exceptionalism the US wants? Is America about more than the strongman politics of economic and military coercion?<\/p>\n

The immediate reaction in the US was relief, jumping on the line that Trump won\u2019t take Greenland by force. It will be telling to look at the commentary as the country reflects on the president\u2019s aim of lifting America up, seemingly by dragging the rest of the world down.<\/p>\n

One leader donned the cloak of statesmanship at Davos this week. It wasn\u2019t Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

Mark Shanahan<\/a> is associate professor of political engagement, University of Surrey<\/a><\/p>\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The meeting and venue were the same, but the style and tone of the two most anticipated keynote…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":434939,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2065,43,31866,44,1721,9726,41,39,42,40,227229,40650],"class_list":["post-434938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-canada","tag-headlines","tag-mark-carney","tag-news","tag-opinion","tag-the-conversation","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-trump-at-davos","tag-world-economic-forum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434938","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=434938"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434938\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/434939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=434938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=434938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=434938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}