American embarrassment. Global pariah.
Trump's Davos debacle marked a new low.
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Donald Trump sounded like a fascist dictator suffering from a brain bleed during his speech yesterday at Davos. It was a national embarrassment even by the lowly standards of modern American politics.
I had other plans for today’s newsletter and have been primarily personally concerned about the increasingly terrifying scenes on the streets of my city, but the president’s showing in Switzerland was so shabby that I feel compelled to share some thoughts about it.
First of all, despite what cable news chyrons would have you believe, Trump’s screed was chillingly aggressive. He began the Greenland part of it with a thinly veiled threat against NATO, claiming his recent coup in Venezuela proves his regime is a “much greater power than people even understand.” He contrasted his purported strength with European weakness.
“We saw this in World War 2 when Denmark fell to Germany after just six hours of fighting and was totally unable to defend either itself of Greenland,” Trump said to total silence, adding that “without us, right now you'd all be speaking German and a little Japanese.” (German is in fact an official language of Switzerland.)
Trump then channeled Hitler during the Sudetenland crisis, demanding “immediate negotiations to discuss the acquisition of Greenland by the United States" — or else.
“We probably won't get anything unless I decide to use excessive strength and force, where we would be frankly unstoppable. But I won't do that. Okay?"
Life comes at you fast: With financial markets tanking and European nations talking seriously about economic retaliation, Trump shortly after his speech pulled a TACO, posting on Truth Social about a vague “framework of a future deal” involving NATO and Greenland. But during a subsequent interview with CNBC, Trump was unwilling and/or unable to provide any details, instead characterizing the framework (which sure sounds like the status quo) as “a concept of a deal.”
Alas, NATO Secretary Mark Rutte confirmed later on Fox News that the status of Greenland wasn’t even discussed as part of Trump’s “framework.” The “deal” appears to be about as meaningful as a degree from Trump University, but it’s at least better than blowing up NATO for no reason.
Complete insanity
In the immediate aftermath of Trump’s speech, cable coverage seized upon his “I won’t do that” comment as evidence he’s taken armed aggression against NATO off the table. But of course he also ruled out strikes within Venezuela until shortly before he launched them.
Make no mistake, Trump’s line about “unstoppable excessive force” was a threat, and the rest of what he said was meant to provide plausible deniability. He employed a similar choose-your-own-adventure rhetorical strategy on January 6 when he mentioned “fight” or “fighting” more than 20 times during a pre-insurrection speech in which he also included a few mentions of peace.
As if the sabre-rattling toward NATO and Greenland wasn’t enough, Trump also sneered at Canada. One day after Prime Minster Carney delivered a historic speech at Davos essentially announcing the demise of Pax Americana because of Trump’s malevolent erraticness, Trump huffed that Carney “wasn’t so grateful” for all America has done for his country and said, “Canada lives because of the United States. Remember that, Mark, next time you make your statements.”
Perhaps just as disturbing as Trump’s aggression is his obviously disordered state of mind. He made up that “we have new steel plants being built all over the country,” claimed that “I haven’t been able to find any wind farms in China” (the country in fact operates some of the largest ones in the world), and vowed that there will soon be prosecutions over his 2020 election loss, which he delusionally claimed was “rigged. Everybody now knows that. They found out.”
Trump went on to take credit for ending conflicts in countries he seemed to be unfamiliar with, saying “I settled eight other wars” including one in “Aber-baijan.”
Perhaps most bizarrely, Trump repeatedly confused the ally he wants to annex with another country entirely, saying “Iceland” when he meant to refer to Greenland — though it can’t be ruled out at this point that he wants to conquer both.
In a sign of the Trump regime’s Orwellianism, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt responded to Trump’s confusion by attacking a reporter who pointed it out, tweeting that “his written remarks referred to Greenland as a ‘piece of ice’ because that’s what it is. You’re the only one mixing anything up here.”
If all this recklessness and senility isn’t enough for you, Trump also offered up some uncut racism. He opened his speech by lamenting that “certain places in Europe are not even recognizable anymore” in “a very negative way.” Less subtly, he said later of Somalis that “they turned out to be higher IQ than we thought. I always say, ‘These are low IQ people.’ How did they go into Minnesota and steal all that money?”
It’s a sign of the sickness of American society that gutter bigotry of that sort from the president no longer seems to even register as a blip in the mainstream news cycle.
“Sometimes you need a dictator”
Reflecting on his speech during another Davos event a few hours later, Trump lied that “we got great reviews” before adding some authoritarian bluster.
“Usually they say, 'he's a horrible dictator-type person.' But sometimes you need a dictator."
Put it all together and what we have here is of an out of control wannabe autocrat who’s cognitively impaired, openly racist, and more eager than ever to use force against his perceived foes both at home and abroad. It’s complete madness that this guy has the nuke codes and yet, with the exception of people like Mark Carney, too few leaders are willing to grapple with it.
Thom Tillis, a retiring senator who’s career was ended by Trump and who presumably would be one of the Senate Republicans most open to removing him from office, went as far as to admit during an interview at Davos that he wouldn’t view a military invasion of Greenland as grounds for impeachment because he’d prefer to “go for a war powers resolution,” as though another law would mean anything.
At campaign rallies throughout his political career, Trump has regularly read “The Snake,” a poem about people being taken advantage of because of their credulity.
“‘Oh shut up, silly woman,’ said the reptile with a grin, ‘You knew damn well I was a snake before you took me in,” it goes.
America knew — or should have known — that Trump was a snake before voters committed the world historical blunder of letting him into the White House for a second time. But that’s water under the bridge. Now we have to hope we’re able to survive the venom and endure the unending global humiliation.
That Trump backed down hours after his Davos speech is a promising sign that financial markets and diplomatic pressure (not to mention the grassroots organizing that’s taking place in the occupied Twin Cities) can still provide something of a check on his desire to carve up the world between strongmen like himself, Putin, and President Xi. But one year in, he and his regime are getting worse.
That’s evident in the streets of Minneapolis, the oil fields of Venezuela, and yesterday on that stage in Davos, which will go down as the site of one of if not the most pathetic presidential speech in history — so far.
That’s it for today
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Complete embarrassment, but let’s not let a malignant narcissist be the full image of America.
The international order is pushing back and we could push back internally.
Mark Carney’s speech was perfect. Not because he was diplomatic or conciliatory, but because he refused to appease the bully. He spoke truth to power clearly: the world is building what comes next, with or without America.
This is exactly what I mapped in World Ahead 2026: Part 3. While the bully rambled about “daddy” and threatened prosecution for the 2020 election, allies were drawing the line. When he backed down on tariffs and claimed a “framework deal” on Greenland (which is just surrendering back to the original agreement), it proved the strategy works.
The bully confused Greenland with Iceland at Davos. The president of the United States, threatening to annex territory, can’t keep straight which country he’s targeting. And Carney, Macron, and other leaders watched this mental deterioration while calmly explaining they’re building European defense independence, activating economic countermeasures, and decoupling from American reliability.
The domestic brutality we are witnessing (secret ICE memos, Fourth Amendment shredding, detaining children) and the international realignment happening at Davos are the same phenomenon: American institutional collapse forcing everyone to build alternatives.
Allies aren’t waiting for 2026 midterms or hoping resistance materializes. They’re watching federal agents operate like brownshirts, a president who can’t distinguish NATO allies, and a regime that openly discusses prosecuting people for refusing to help steal elections. That’s disqualifying. Even if American democracy somehow recovers, the trust is gone.
Carney’s speech matters because it signals the strategy shift: not hoping America stabilizes, but building what works without American reliability. That external pressure might be the only thing that forces accountability domestically.
The world is moving on. And Davos this week showed they’re done waiting.
— Johan
Exactly, Aaron. Mitch McConnell calling for impeachment if he attacks Greenland…he should have done that approx 1,840 days ago. He’s the reason Trump has been able to burn this country to the ground.😡Thanks for your sharing your thoughts. I agree with you.