Europe not heading in right direction, Trump tells Davos

Donald Trump took to the stage in Davos to address the World Economic Forum and began his speech by criticising Europe.

The US president opened his remarks by saying it was “great to be back in beautiful Davos, Switzerland and to address so many respected business leaders, so many friends, a few enemies.”

The president echoed criticisms he had made of Europe in his United Nations address last year and his administration’s latest national security statements.

“I love Europe and I want to see Europe go good, but it’s not heading in the right direction,” he said.

Mr Trump also proclaimed: “When America booms the whole world booms,” and, “You all follow us down and you follow us up.”

Mr Trump called for “immediate negotiations” for the US to acquire Greenland from Denmark during his speech at Davos. He insisted he will not use force to acquire the territory.

He said the US “probably won’t get anything” unless he decided to “use excessive strength and force” that he said would make the US “frankly unstoppable”.

“But I won’t do that. OK?” Mr Trump said.

He added a minute later: “I don’t have to use force. I don’t want to use force. I won’t use force.”

The president also lashed out at Denmark for being “ungrateful” for the US protection of the Arctic island during the Second World War and continued to make his case that the US needs to control the island for the sake of national security.

He asserted that Denmark promised to spend “over 200 million dollars to strengthen Greenland’s defences” and then insisted it has “spent less than 1% of that”.

He was referring to a 2019 commitment from the Danish government, made during Mr Trump’s first presidency, when he first floated the idea of the US taking control of the semiautonomous territory of Denmark.

“This enormous unsecured island is actually part of North America,” Mr Trump said. “That’s our territory.”

The president cited the difficulty of mining on the Arctic island.

“You got to go through hundreds of feet of ice,” he said. That’s not the reason we need it.”

Instead, he said the US needs it for “strategic national security and international security”.

“We want a piece of ice for world protection, and they won’t give it,” Mr Trump.

“You can say yes and we will be very appreciative. Or you can say no and we will remember.”

Within 20 minutes of starting his speech, Mr Trump had criticised Europe several times.

He said he was European in heritage and wants to see it do well, but argued European countries are “destroying themselves”.

On windmills, immigration and trade, he tore into the continent, while many of its leaders were in his presence at the conference.

Windmills are “all over Europe” and are “losers” bought by “stupid people”, the US president said.

He made it clear that it was European nations that were the “stupid people” buying windmills from China.

It is part of his broad claims about energy. Mr Trump is promoting oil and coal, traditional fossil fuels, and nuclear energy, while blasting newer, cleaner energy sources.

Calling windmills “those damn things”, he renewed his critiques that they “kill the birds” and “ruin the landscapes”.

Mr Trump mused that China owns the international windmill market but does not use them within its borders.

“Certain places in Europe are not even recognisable,” he said. “Here in Europe, we’ve seen the fate that the radical left tried to impose upon America.”

It was standing room only inside Congress Hall as Davos awaited Mr Trump’s highly anticipated speech.

Hundreds of people, including several tech titans, sought a coveted seat inside the hall.

Mr Trump touted economic growth in the US, using many of his characteristic superlatives that exaggerate circumstances on the ground.

“The USA is the economic engine on the planet,” Trump said. “You all follow us down, and you follow us up.”

Mr Trump credited his tariff policies, which allies have harshly criticised ahead of his arrival at Davos. The president has also repeated his false claims that he inherited record inflation and has completely eliminated it.

His economic framing is similar to how he reviewed his first year back in power in a lengthy White House press briefing on Tuesday before he travelled to Europe.

In the first part of his Davos speech, Mr Trump touted America’s finances and living standards, which he said he achieved against expectations.

“Virtually all of the so-called experts predicted my plans to end this failed model would trigger a global recession and runaway inflation,” he said. “But we have proven them wrong.”

Mr Trump said he wanted to spend the day discussing “how we have achieved this economic miracle” and suggested, as he did from the White House yesterday, that other countries in attendance could learn from his success.

Distant protesters made their voices, though not their words, heard from the steps outside the Congress Centre as Mr Trump addressed the gathering of elites.

Their words were too faint to be discernible, but they appeared to express angry opposition to Mr Trump.

The president referenced a recent push by his administration to get tech companies to bid on contracts to build new power plants, so that data centre operators, not consumers, pay for their own power needs.

“They’re building their own power plants, which when added up is more than any country anywhere in the world is doing,” Mr Trump said.

Mr Trump also touched on the US military operation that led to the recent ousting of Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro.

He reiterated that he is getting co-operation from Venezuelan officials and predicted good times for the South American country’s economy.

“Every major oil company is coming in with us,” Mr Trump said. “It’s amazing.”

Earlier this month, at a White House meeting, Exxon Mobil chief executive Darren Woods said the Venezuelan market is “un-investable” in its current state.

He went on to needle his northern neighbour after Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Tuesday that the current phase of global diplomacy was a “rupture” and called for “middle powers” to “act together”.

Mr Trump said Canada gets many “freebies” from the US and “should be grateful”.

He said Mr Carney’s Davos speech showed he “wasn’t so grateful”.

“Canada lives because of the United States,” Mr Trump said. “Remember that, Mark, the next time you make your statements.”

Mr Trump repeated his claim that the Russian war on Ukraine “wouldn’t have started” if the 2020 US presidential election “weren’t rigged”.

Mr Trump said he is meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday.

The meeting was not on Mr Trump’s publicly released calendar and it was not clear if he meant a virtual or in-person meeting.

Mr Zelensky is not believed to be in Davos.

Talking about the US market, Mr Trump said he did not want to simply expand housing supply because it could lower values for people who already own homes.

“If I want to really crush the housing market, I could do that so fast,” he said. But, “I don’t want to do anything to hurt” people who have built wealth through their home equity.

“I don’t want to do anything to hurt” existing homeowners, Mr Trump said. He instead emphasised his desire to see lower interest rates, though that is a policy that, over time, would drive home prices up because it fuels demand.