The annual gathering of global elites in Davos, Switzerland, is well underway. Past meetings have not been without their share of controversy and dissension. But this year’s forum may devolve into chaos. Last week, at a dinner of many current and former heads of state as well as top CEOs, Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick delivered scathing criticism of European economic and social policy. His remarks were so impolitic that high-profile figures, such as European Central Bank president Christine Laguarde, walked out in protest and the host of the dinner, none other than Larry Fink of Blackrock, ended the dinner before dessert.
Then Trump spoke on Wednesday. And while he assured the Europeans that he would not take Greenland by force, he continued to insist that the US would acquire it. The rest of his speech focused on tariffs and his various “economic achievements.” On tariffs, at least, Trump has been remarkably consistent. He loves them. They are the perfect policy: negotiating tool, revenue generator, a bone to toss to workers and domestic firms, a lever of power, and a leveler of economic fairness.
Lutnick and Trump are not your ordinary Davos attendees. They refuse to play nice or kowtow to globalist sentiment. They are not on the net-zero green energy bandwagon. They believe in national power. They emphasize building and growing rather than regulating. In short, they are anathema to the Davos orthodoxy. So why are they there?
Perhaps they hope to extend US influence. Afterall, why destroy Davos when you can take it over? When you think about it, Lutnick and Trump are part of the global elite – wealthy businessmen looking to cut a deal and line their pockets. This is their crowd and their kind of machine. If they can turn the event to their own purposes, they will certainly try.
A more likely story, though, is that they came to Davos intending to cut the Europeans down to size. They certainly don’t respect the Europeans. And not entirely without reason. What should they respect? Their woke ideology? Their oppressive regulatory regime? Their underwhelming economic growth? Their military prowess? In the President and the Secretary’s eyes, the Europeans warrant little praise and much blame.
Then again, the European elite have brought this upon themselves. They began the Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG) crusade several decades ago. They have aspired, often successfully, to be the puppet masters of the global economy. They have foisted costly, sometimes disastrous, net-zero and clean energy goals. They have also pushed identity politics on the rest of the world through Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives and requirements.
People in western democracies have become restless under the administrative boot of these Davos elites. They are unhappy about uncontrolled immigration and the swift demographic changes in their cities. They don’t want to be censored by politically correct regulators. They don’t want to pay higher prices for food, energy, and transportation. They live in a maze of red tape; and every year is worse than the one before.
As a result, right-wing political parties across Europe have been surging. In Italy, Giorgia Meloni has been the right-of-center Prime Minister for over three years. In France, the right-of-center National Rally party won the largest share of the popular vote in 2024. In Germany, the far-right AfD party won just over 20 percent of the national vote.
And across the Atlantic, this reactionary populism re-elected Trump and his team. The Davos chickens have returned home to roost. Despite their shortcomings, Trump and Lutnick are delivering the discontents’ message loud and clear to the global elite: “We don’t like you. We don’t want you. We don’t need you. As a matter of fact, just leave us alone. And we are not asking.”
Based on the reaction of the past few days, we can assume that the message has been received. But now what? Will the Davos elite simply sail (or fly on their private jets) into the sunset? It’s safe to say that they won’t give up that easily. There is too much at stake – billions and billions of dollars.
Walking away means admitting that their multi-decade project to reshape the global economy has failed. This would mean that hundreds of billions of dollars were wasted on solar panels and wind turbines. It would mean that hundreds of millions of people have been made to pay higher electricity and gas prices, and to accept lower rates of economic growth in pursuit of an elitist pipe dream. As the commander in A Few Good Men might say to them, “You can’t handle the truth!”
But besides the pain of acknowledging failure, there is a far more prosaic reason why the Davos elites will not abandon their global puppet strings. They benefit too much from the current global elite agenda. They have built multi-billion-dollar companies around carbon credits and the net-zero agenda. They lead an extensive NGO network whose existence depends on climate alarmism and social engineering. And they have built careers and political coalitions around the ideas and priorities Trump and Lutnick recently blasted.
It’s especially fitting that Larry Fink – the interim co-chair of WEF and one of the chief architects of the global elitist agenda – should see things spiral into chaos at the private dinner he hosted. As perhaps the most prominent “Davos Man,” this message was for him. Although BlackRock has improved in recent years (under extreme pressure from anti-ESG organizations), it was one of the key architects of spreading ESG and DEI throughout corporate America by voting the proxies of the shares it holds for investors.
Davos may not quite be finished, but it’s hard to imagine it ever regaining the reputation or status it once had. Nor can it go back to business as usual after such a public and vocal rebuke. The net-zero ESG agenda has been weighed and found wanting. Decentralized competitive capitalism remains the best avenue to improving human flourishing.
But were the global elites to accept that, Davos would truly be finished.
