“I also visited D.C. in early December, had meetings in the White House, but also with the different Cabinet secretaries, and now we are in a situation where Trump is coming, and we also have five key Cabinet secretaries,” he said. “There will be a broad footprint of the U.S. in Davos.”
Brende, a former Norwegian foreign minister, has clearly made it his mission to secure star speakers for the Alpine summit of the world’s business and political elite.
After limp Covid-era editions, a sharp jump in participation costs and leadership turmoil for the WEF, Trump’s star turn — flanked by many of MAGA’s most powerful players — amounts to a vote of confidence in a forum some had written off as outdated or adrift.
That U.S. dominance coincides with a broader shift in the program itself.
The same gathering that once gave Greta Thunberg its main stage for her “our house is on fire” warning about the climate crisis, that celebrated an all-female lineup of co-chairs in the wake of #MeToo, and that pushed governments to track progress toward the United Nations’ Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals — is now clearing space for Trump’s MAGA agenda at a moment when the U.S. president has once again upended global diplomacy by threatening tariffs on European countries over their resistance to his efforts to take over Greenland.
Trump’s entourage will include Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, Energy Secretary Chris Wright, U.S. special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.