{"id":425359,"date":"2026-01-22T07:45:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T07:45:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/425359\/"},"modified":"2026-01-22T07:45:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T07:45:11","slug":"rubbing-elbows-with-the-davos-elite-trump-revels-about-making-the-rich-even-richer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/425359\/","title":{"rendered":"Rubbing elbows with the Davos elite: Trump revels about making the rich even richer"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n After it was announced that California Gov. Gavin Newsom<\/a> would share his views on President Donald Trump<\/a> at the World Economic Forum<\/a> in Switzerland, this week, MAGA influencer Katie Miller derided the Democrat for his presence at the event frequented by wealthy businessmen.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cOf course Gavin Newsom is going to Davos,\u201d Miller, who is married to top White House adviser Stephen Miller, posted Monday on X<\/a>. \u201cNothing quite says America First like commiserating to the crowd of the World\u2019s Elites.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n But what\u2019s transpired over the last couple of days hasn\u2019t exactly driven home her point in the way she might have envisioned.\n <\/p>\n

\n Newsom has spent his time urging the elites at Davos to stand up more strongly to Trump. And it\u2019s Trump who\u2019s been rubbing elbows with the wealthy and taking no shame in talking about his ties to rich people and his efforts to make them even richer.\n <\/p>\n

\n Even as Americans struggle with what they overwhelmingly view as a stagnant economy, the president seemed to revel Wednesday in how good his policies have been for the wealthy.\n <\/p>\n

\n He made a series of such comments during a reception with CEOs.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cSo I think in terms of your investments, you\u2019re in great shape,\u201d Trump told the crowd. \u201cI don\u2019t even ask anybody how you\u2019re doing now. It\u2019s like everybody is making so much money.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Trump said he often goes around giving congratulations to business leaders.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThey say, on what?\u201d Trump said. \u201cI said, \u2018you\u2019ve doubled your net worth since I\u2019ve been president, right?\u2019 He said, \u2018Yeah, even more than that.\u2019 They would say, \u2018Even more. We\u2019re doing even better than that.\u2019 And we\u2019ve given you platform where you can put your genius to work.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n At another point at the same event, Trump pointed to his big domestic agenda bill \u2013 which he often called the \u201cBig Beautiful Bill\u201d \u2013 that passed last year and a key tax deduction it gave business owners.\n <\/p>\n

\n Trump then riffed about how, in his first term, one wealthy friend bought an airplane they didn\u2019t even use because they wanted to use such a deduction.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI always said, that\u2019s what made my first term so successful,\u201d Trump said. \u201cBecause, I mean, people were buying things that \u2013 I have a friend who bought an airplane, he never used it. He just bought it. He said, \u2018I get a \u2013 I deducted it.\u2019\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cIt\u2019d be a great plane to buy, actually, because he\u2019ll never use it,\u201d Trump continued.\n <\/p>\n

\"Members<\/p>\n

\n It\u2019s one thing to boast about your ties to rich people and how they reduce their tax burden in good times, when a strong economy is lifting all boats. But one of the biggest problems with the current economy is how \u201cK-shaped<\/a>\u201d it is \u2013 i.e. it\u2019s great for the wealthy but not nearly so much for the rest of the country.\n <\/p>\n

\n Indeed, Oxfam\u2019s recent annual inequality report<\/a> this month showed billionaires\u2019 wealth grew three times faster last year than they had averaged over the previous five years.\n <\/p>\n

\n And Miller\u2019s post points to the political risks here.\n <\/p>\n

\n Even as about 7 in 10 Americans viewed the economy as \u201cpoor\u201d in last week\u2019s new CNN poll, here was Trump at a gathering of elites talking about how good he\u2019s been for the upper part of that K-shaped economy. That\u2019s pretty tone-deaf.\n <\/p>\n

\n And it\u2019s hardly the only example of an unadvisable comment that might irk Americans concerned about their pocketbooks. Amid the economic problems, Trump and his Cabinet \u2013 which happens to be stocked with billionaires<\/a> \u2013 have made a series of these kinds of remarks.\n <\/p>\n

\n Trump\u2019s comments came just a day after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent spoke about the administration\u2019s idea to ban institutional investors from buying single-family homes<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n

\n Some Americans believe big, institutional investors have driven up housing costs. Bessent sought to assure this move wouldn\u2019t hurt \u201cmom and pop\u201d investors. But his definition of \u201cmom and pop\u201d investors raised some eyebrows.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cSomeone, maybe your parents for their retirement,\u201d Bessent told Fox Business Network\u2019s Maria Bartiromo, \u201cbought five, 10, 12 homes. So, we don\u2019t want to push the mom and pops out. We just want to push everyone else out.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Just your average retiree, owning anywhere from five to a dozen homes.\n <\/p>\n

\n Newsom promoted the clip of Bessent, asking, \u201cCould this smug man be more out of touch?\u201d Bessent shot back<\/a> Wednesday that the Democratic governor \u201cmay be the only Californian who knows less about economics than Kamala Harris.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n And over the course of the last year, the administration has made a series of awkward comments<\/a> about how Americans could navigate economic difficulties. Trump talked about simply buying fewer dolls and pencils.\n <\/p>\n

\n More recently, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said Americans can afford a $3 meal of quality food that includes \u201ca piece of broccoli.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n The 2026 election figures to focus extensively on the economy, and the Trump team is giving Democrats plenty to work with in painting them as out of touch.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After it was announced that California Gov. Gavin Newsom would share his views on President Donald Trump at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":425360,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[45,49,48,46],"class_list":{"0":"post-425359","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-economy"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425359","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=425359"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425359\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/425360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=425359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=425359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=425359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}