Hot Takes

This week in Davos, the zeitgeist is moving from resilience to rancor—over climate, economic inequality and Donald Trump's return to global power

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The more than 3,000 global leaders descending on Davos this week for the World Economic Forum are bracing for heightened political wrangling over how to adapt to a warming world—and over what some warn is an emerging “aristocratic oligarchy” primed to profit from Donald Trump’s return to the world stage.

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Conventional wisdom holds that this is a wretched time to be an incumbent ruler in a democracy.

Just ask Joe Biden—or the leaders of Britain, Canada, France or Germany. What will be President Donald Trump’s fate as he returns to the White House and world stage? The simple promises of populists on the campaign trail rarely survive the complex reality of governing, and public opposition to the widening wealth gap is growing.

In a special address delivered on the second day of this week’s World Economic Forum (WEF), held annually in the Swiss Alps resort town of Davos, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said rising global tensions were influencing the dour mood of many attending, adding that “predictability, honesty and reliability are having an increasingly difficult time globally … at the same time the world is becoming more complicated and complex.”

[One of the photographs to emerge during the conference’s opening day featured a protester waving a sign that read, “Billionaires party while the world burns.”]

Tipping Point

While Davos has long advocated for a more collaborative, globalized world, many delegates this year have been focusing on the impact of an increasingly fractured one.

In opening remarks Monday, WEF president and CEO Borge Brende told the more than 3,000 global leaders from over 130 countries attending that they “are meeting in among the most uncertain geo-political and geo-economic moments in generations. … 2025 will be a year of consequences—maybe even at the level we have seen in history in 1918, 1945 and 1989. …We are facing changing power dynamics that are altering global relations, changing trade policies and redesigning commerce.”

Borge reminded delegates of WEF’s founding mission to build a better world, saying today’s extended political polarization and accelerating race for economic dominance “demonstrate the critical need for dialogue in this increasingly uncertain era.”

Yet despite his plea for collaboration, tensions surfaced at many of the sessions, and quite a few meetings focused on Trump.

Trump’s Quid Pro Quo

In remarks delivered virtually via livestream to the Davos delegates Thursday, Trump talked about his election victory and sharply criticized the policies of the Biden administration, drawing quiet gasps from the audience of political and business leaders by saying he was taking over from an “inept group of people.” The speech was his first to global dignitaries since taking office Monday.

Trump also used his address to promise lower taxes for global investors if they bring manufacturing to the U.S.—but would impose tariffs if they don’t.

“Come make your product in America and we will give you among the lowest taxes as any nation on earth,” Trump told delegates. “But if you don’t make your product in America, which is your prerogative, then very simply, you will have to pay a tariff — differing amounts — but a tariff, which will direct hundreds of billions of dollars and even trillions of dollars into our treasury to strengthen our economy and pay down debt under the Trump administration.”

Trump has taken heat from a number of Davos delegates this week for his decision to end America’s policy commitment to work with other nations to mitigate global warming. “We have huge oil and gas reserves in the United States and so we will unlock the liquid gold under our feet,” Trump said Thursday, “… and create a new energy infrastructure.”

Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, said in a presentation Tuesday that Trump’s rejection Monday of the Paris climate agreement (again) was a signal of both his “lack of concern about the rise in global warming”—and Trump’s disregard for the kind of multilateralism which has come to define the Davos conference. “Europe will stay the course,” she said, adding that the European Commission “will keep working with all nations that want to protect nature and stop global warming” because “the Paris Agreement continues to be the best hope for all humanity.”

Trump’s energy-related executive orders, many issued on his first day in office, seek to make it easier for companies to produce oil and gas, and empower the government to stop clean-energy projects that have already been approved.

“Trump 2.0”

Earlier in the week, global media leaders and political commentators weighed in on Trump during a special WEF presentation, expressing concern that Trump’s return to the White House might further destabilize global markets and fracture America’s long-held relationships with global allies.

Patrick Foulis, the foreign editor of The Economist, said Trump is again “roiling longstanding alliances” with European leaders. “Most people feel we’re going to see an era of untamed American power expressed in all ways from the tech industry to tariffs to military activity,” he said, adding that “many leaders are also concerned that the MAGA movement will express more interventionist instincts into foreign policy.” Trump made tariff hikes a key promise on the campaign trail and in the run-up to his inauguration. If new levies are forthcoming, Foulis said, countries on the receiving end will likely respond in kind. “The world is colossally more dangerous now” than when Trump was first in office, he added. “American deterrence has collapsed around the world.”

Mina Al-Oraibi, the editor-in-chief of The National, said it was “Trump 2.0” that ultimately got the Gaza ceasefire deal finalized, but expressed concern that “the unpredictability that Trump represents is also the unpredictability of the world.” Sam Jacobs, the editor-in-chief of Time, said that on the scale of expected executive action, the incoming Trump presidency “could be 200 times more unpredictable and more volatile than the first term.”

According to the World Economic Forum’s latest Chief Economists Outlook, a survey of economists attending the conference, 89% said they expect Trump to reject traditional norms, and also expect a trade war of tit-for-tat trade restrictions between the U.S. and China. Those surveyed also identified protectionism as the factor most likely to drive lasting changes to global trade patterns this year.

Trade War?

Trump has repeatedly threatened to impose steep tariffs on trading partners, and chiefly on Chinese imports. Last week, Trump declared on social media that the U.S. would being collecting “our Tariffs, Duties, and all Revenue that come from Foreign sources.” Tariffs, which are taxes applied on imports from foreign countries, have not been a significant share of US government revenue for decades. In 2023, for instance, import duties on goods made up 2% of the federal government's tax revenue. Trump said Thursday he thinks it should be closer to 5%. Most economists maintain that when tariffs are imposed, the costs are passed on to consumers.

“We could see states of emergency declared on various things, including trade,” The Economist’s Foulis stated, adding that foreign exchange markets are already adjusting in preparation for the implementation of US tariffs.

During conference sessions on Tuesday, Ding Xuexiang, the vice premier of the People’s Republic of China, called on world governments to uphold the institutions of multilateralism and warned global leaders— in remarks directed at the Trump administration—to avoid using protectionist policies to gain economic advantage. “Trade wars have no winners,” he said.

Later in the day, during a session entitled Finding Growth in Uncertain Times, Khaldoon Al Mubarak, the head of Mubadala, Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund, said the new U.S. administration’s economic policies will likely promote growth in the U.S. and make the U.S. “very attractive for investors” —but agreed that a trade war “would not benefit anyone.”

New data reveal a global “Crisis of Grievance”

The prickly tenor of this year’s Forum seemed anchored in new findings shared by WEF in The 2025 Edelman Trust Barometer —released late last week in advance of the Forum. The “Trust and the Crisis of Grievance”survey of 33,000 global citizens in 28 countries, including the U.S. and the U.K., reveals a profound shift to acceptance of aggressive action, with political polarization and deepening fears about how the world is changing giving rise to a widespread sense of grievance.

Here are the survey’s Top 10 findings for 2025 being shared this week at Davos:

• Tensions are rising between the world’s economic have’s and have-nots. A majority (61%) of citizens globally have a moderate or high sense of grievance, defined as being a belief that government and business make their lives harder and serve narrow interests—and that wealthy people benefit unfairly from the system while regular people struggle.

• Widespread grievance erodes trust. Those with a high sense of grievance said they do not trust any of the four institutions (business, government, media and NGOS), CEOs and artificial intelligence.

• Globalization, recession and technology fears are heightened. The percentage of employees who worry about losing their jobs because of these forces has risen significantly since last year.

• Fear of discrimination is surging. Nearly two-thirds of respondents worry about experiencing prejudice, discrimination or racism—up 10 points in the last year, and with significant increases across countries and demographics, including among white respondents in the U.S.

• A majority of those surveyed said they lack optimism for the next generation. Only 36% of respondents believe that things will be better for the next generation. In developed countries, just 1 in 5 see a better future.

• Business is 16 points less trusted among low-income respondents than among high-income respondents. Those in the bottom income quartile have a Trust Index of 49—the average percent trust in business, government, media and NGOs.

• 4 in 10 surveyed approve of hostile activism. To bring about change,

  this group would approve of one or more of the following actions: attacking people online, intentionally spreading disinformation, threatening or committing violence and damaging public or private property. This sentiment is most prevalent among respondents ages 18-34 (53% approve).

• A high sense of grievance puts pressure on business. Among those with a high sense of grievance, business is seen as being 81 points less ethical and

  37 points less competent than among those with a low sense of grievance. Those with a high sense of grievance say business is not doing enough to address issues like affordability, climate change, job retraining, misinformation and discrimination.

• CEOs say they can make a difference and improve performance. Most CEOs surveyed said if they have permission to address a societal issue when their business contributed to the problem, and harms their stakeholders, they could have a major positive impact and improve their business’s performance.

• Business cannot do it alone: Most surveyed said all institutions must help build trust to address grievance and all institutions must work together to deliver results that benefit everyone fairly, repair the social fabric, advocate for trustworthy information and rebuild economic optimism.

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NOTE: This post was updated on 1-21, 1-22 and again on 1-23 to include President Donald Trump’s livestreamed remarks Thursday to the Davos delegates and add the highlights of earlier presentations by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Ding Xuexiang, the vice premiere of the People’s Republic of China.

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