\u201cWe live in a world in which you can talk about international niceties and everything else,\u201d Donald Trump\u2019s<\/a> deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller<\/a>, told my colleague Jake Tapper recently. \u201cBut we live in a world, the real world \u2026 that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power,\u201d he continued. \u201cThese are the iron laws of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n From Caracas, Copenhagen and Kyiv, to Brussels, Bogot\u00e1, Jerusalem and Johannesburg, via Tehran, Ottawa, Mexico City and beyond, this second \u201cAmerica First\u201d term is redefining the boundaries of American power and how it might be exercised.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is one thing: my own morality, my own mind. It\u2019s the only thing that can stop me,\u201d Trump told The New York Times last week. \u201cI don\u2019t need international law.\u201d<\/p>\n Based on his administration\u2019s recent actions, from the audacious capture of Nicol\u00e1s Maduro<\/a> to renewed threats to take Greenland<\/a> by whatever means necessary, few believe he is not serious.<\/p>\n Eight years ago, Trump strode into the Congress Hall at Davos<\/a> to unbecoming gushes and gawps from delegates overcome by his celebrity, craning their necks for a glimpse of him. This was an exclusive club of which he was never part, and one which would never previously have dreamed of welcoming him in such a way. <\/p>\n Now he was the centre of attention, and he clearly revelled in it. Back then, the WEF rolled out the red carpet more in hope than expectation, and Trump just about concealed his disdain for its elitist, intellectual trappings. America was \u201copen for business\u201d, he told them. Yes, it would still be America First, but \u201cnot America alone\u201d. On the surface it was a surprisingly inclusive message. Oh, how things have changed.<\/p>\n Exactly how to welcome this most unpredictable of house guests into the halls of the WEF\u2019s globalist cathedral now is anyone\u2019s guess. Davos is the very embodiment of \u201cinternational niceties\u201d. The foundations upon which it is built \u2013 a vision of dialogue and stakeholder capitalism and a \u201ccommitment to improving the state of the world\u201d \u2013 are shaking like never before. <\/p>\n As if that wasn\u2019t enough, the WEF itself is already creaking under pressure of its own making. Klaus Schwab, its founder and executive chairman, departed last year amid allegations of misconduct raised by anonymous whistle-blowers. An internal investigation found no evidence of material wrongdoing, but the episode was an embarrassing one for an organisation facing persistent questions over its relevance.<\/p>\n The WEF maintains that Davos offers a unique opportunity for decision-makers from multiple perspectives to collaborate, and to some extent that is true. But in the current climate the idea that it can also effect change seems absurdly unrealistic, especially when faced with a guest of honour who could easily come to dinner to unapologetically smash the crockery and pocket the silverware on his way out.<\/p>\n All of this begs an obvious question: if Davos is truly irrelevant, then why is Trump bothering to head up into the Swiss Alps at all? Based on his last visit, there is no doubt that he will get attention, and any long-time observer will tell you that alone can be incentive enough for Mr Trump. He could simply take the opportunity to rub delegates noses in their impotence, expand the \u201cDonroe doctrine<\/a>\u201c, and remind everyone that if they want a deal, they must get it on his terms \u2013 or else.<\/p>\n But there is also some evidence to suggest that America should be courting some of the still-influential power-brokers padding around the deep pile carpets of the Davos Congress Centre. Ken Fisher, founder and executive chair of Fisher Investments, reminded me last week that 2025 was a better year for business outside of America than in it, while the three years prior were better for those in the United States.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a world where the world\u2019s doing business around America, and sometimes in America,\u201d he told me. \u201cBut the rest of the world is what\u2019s leading the capital markets, not the United States.\u201d Trump is also facing hardening political realities at home. Every US president looks to the mid-terms with a sense of dread, and Trump\u2019s approval ratings are languishing behind his bluster.<\/p>\n Cracks are also beginning to appear in his once rock-solid Maga Republican coalition<\/a>, partly over issues such as the administration\u2019s handling of the Epstein files<\/a>, but also because of a stubborn affordability crisis and bewilderment in some quarters over recent foreign policy adventures.<\/p>\n
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