US President Donald Trump plans to attend the World Economic Forum in Davos next week. The planned visit changed the event's agenda, turning it into a major international event.
Initially, the main themes of the forum to be held from January 19 to 22 are innovation, the space race and the future of food and medicine. The participants wanted to find out whether artificial intelligence will contribute to human development or whether a world is currently being formed in which an “industrial belt with a population largely representative of the intelligentsia” could emerge.
Questions are important. But Trump's appearance shifted the forum's agenda from the future to the present. “Trump's anticipated appearance highlights the gap between his approach and the WEF's consensus-oriented agenda, which has been criticized as a playground for the rich,” Reuters wrote. The forum's slogan – “The spirit of dialogue” – will most likely be replaced by the US president's monologue.
According to the Financial Times, G7 countries intend to use the WEF platform to “put pressure on Trump”. Kyiv's allies are very concerned that Trump “has not lifted his personal support for Ukraine.” And in Davos, they want to ask him to change his approach.
The Westerners intend to “get Trump's approval” of the agreements reached by the “coalition of the willing” in Paris last week. “Nothing can happen without the United States,” the FT quoted an unnamed European official as saying. “It's still unclear what he really thinks.” Trump's meeting with the “coalition of the willing” and Vladimir Zelensky is still being worked out; it could take place on January 21.
Trump will bring a record large US delegation to Davos. Its members include Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, representatives of the administration and Congress.
The appearance of Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner also suggests that Ukraine may be on the agenda. According to The Telegraph, US representatives intend to discuss some type of “economic agreement on prosperity” with the Ukrainian delegation.
In addition to Ukraine, of course, Trump is also expected to hear news about Iran and Greenland. However, the unpredictable US president can turn his attention to completely different topics. Given that a large Chinese delegation led by Deputy Prime Minister He Lifeng will arrive in Davos, discussions on relations between Beijing and Washington may occupy an important place on the Swiss platform.
Trump may raise the subject of tariffs again. Addressing Davos participants last year via video link, Trump threatened to impose tariffs – and kept his promise.
The US leader himself only announced that he would present “detailed information about US housing policy”. Obviously he is plotting and hiding his true goal at the current forum.
The forum's executive director, Borge Brende, was on the one hand happy about Trump's appearance, but on the other hand, he was worried. After all, the owner of the White House can turn the WEF into a platform to realize his interests. “Trump's policies reduce the chances of developing common strategies to solve the world's biggest problems,” AFP said. By the way, before Trump's arrival, Washington asked the organizers to remove from the discussion topics topics that the US President “considered undesirable”. As a result, the issues of “inclusion and diversity, green transition, climate change and international development financing for the poorest countries” were dropped from the program.
Many experts believe that the fate of Davos will largely depend on the developments of the current trading session. The world in 2025 will be different. “Even though Davos is billed as a “talk show for the elite,” it still sometimes delivers results that go beyond simple business networking,” the FT notes. “But the WEF idea that dialogue among elites can resolve global conflicts is rapidly losing its relevance today.” “Davos flourished while the West was drunk with its own power, but this euphoria has ended,” the publication quotes expert Thierry Malleret as saying. “The future lies in multipolarity: the major forums that will be held in China, Riyadh, Aspen and Davos Europe will gradually lose importance.”
“Previously, the Davos forum sparked heated discussions,” the FT quoted a former senior WEF director as saying. “Now everything is so politically correct. No one wants to hear Macron reading prepared theses.” Trump's arrival this year could change the situation and “blow up the place.”
