President Donald Trump touted the economic achievements of his second term, questioned the strength of NATO without American support, and promised that he has no interest in taking Greenland by force during an hour-long speech at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Wednesday.
Trump, who was greeted with a red carpet upon arrival in Davos, said his administration “inherited a mess” from President Joe Biden before stating that “grocery prices, energy prices, airfares, mortgage rates, rent and car payments are all coming down.”
Trump claimed that NATO is an unreliable partner that failed to pay its bills before Trump won reelection.
“We pay for NATO,” Trump told a packed house in Davos. “We paid for many years, until I came along, in my opinion 100 percent of NATO, because they weren’t paying their bills. And all we’re asking for is to get Greenland, including right, title, and ownership.”
To the relief of many, Trump then ruled out using military force to acquire Greenland. “I won’t use force,” Trump said. “All the United States is asking for is a place called Greenland.” Trump bemoaned the failure of President Harry Truman to acquire Greenland in the years following the Second World War. Trump said it costs Denmark “hundreds of millions a year to run it” and that the U.S. needs the land mass for national and international security.
“That can create a power that will make it impossible for the bad guys to do anything against the perceived good ones,” he said. “It’s a great block for Europe.”
Trump criticized prior U.S. administrations and governments across Europe for overspending and permitting unfettered immigration to change their demographic makeups: “It became conventional wisdom in Washington and European capitals that the only way to grow a modern Western economy was through ever-increasing government spending, unchecked mass migration, and endless foreign imports.”
Trump warned that Europe is “not heading in the right direction” and added that “certain places in Europe are not even recognizable, frankly, anymore.”
Speaking of our northern neighbor, Trump said Canada “should be grateful” for the support it receives from the U.S. and instructed Prime Minister Mark Carney to “remember that the next time you make your statements.”
Trump also teased France’s President Emmanuel Macron, who addressed Davos in aviator sunglasses after a recent operation on his eyes. “I watched him yesterday with those beautiful sunglasses,” Trump said as the crowd laughed. “What the hell happened?”
Less than a month after the capture of Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro, Trump said the U.S. will begin selling 50 million barrels of oil and promised that the South American country is “going to make more money than they have in a long time.”
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