Fox in the Globalist Henhouse? Davos Awaits Trump’s Arrival<br />“The opposite of love is irrelevance, and Trump gets that as much as everyone else attending.”<br />And while Mr. Trump may alienate much of the intellectual set, many of the chief executives in attendance have become huge beneficiaries<br />of the president’s tax overhaul, which has instantly created bigger profits, higher compensation and a soaring stock market.<br />His former chief strategist, Stephen K. Bannon, acknowledged as much during the election when he said<br />that the American working class was “tired of being dictated to by what we call the party of Davos.” Mr. Dimon, a longtime Davos attendee, once described the event as a place “where billionaires tell millionaires what the middle class feels.”<br />The big question is, how will Mr. Trump’s “America First” campaign play here?<br />“Trump is as loathed by the elites of Western Europe as he is by the elites of Manhattan,” said Niall Ferguson, a senior fellow of the Hoover Institution, Stanford University<br />and a longtime Davos attendee, although he will not go this year.<br />The cast of multinational leaders this year ranges from chief executives like Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase to philanthropists like Bill Gates<br />and policymakers like Angela Merkel, Germany’s chancellor.<br />“Trump’s attendance is exciting for attendees inasmuch as it shows them Davos is still the place to be,” said Ian Bremmer, president<br />and founder of Eurasia Group, a political risk consultancy.<br />“This isn’t just personal: His policy positions on trade and immigration are blasphemy in Davos, as are his recent derogatory remarks about Africa.”<br />Indeed, Mr. Trump ran his populist campaign against the very plutocrats who populate this forum every year.
