At Davos, Trump lauds U.S. economy, fossil fuels.
DAVOS, SWITZERLAND >> President Donald Trump sharpened his break from the international community at the World Economic Forum on Tuesday, boasting about fossil fuel production and American economic success at a summit dedicated to fighting climate change and fostering global cooperation.
Trump cited positive economic statistics — a soaring stock market, record low unemployment and factory openings — that he hopes will boost his reelection chances and overshadow the Senate impeachment trial underway back in Washington.
“Today I’m proud to declare that the United States is in the midst of an economic boom the likes of which the world has never seen before,” he said in remarks that often sounded more like a campaign speech than an address to global leaders.
Although the U.S. economy is outperforming other advanced economies, many of which are struggling, few economists would call it a boom.
American job growth has been resilient, but domestic manufacturing is in recession and business investment has been sluggish. And economic growth overall in the United States is expected to slow further this year to about 2%, similar to the moderate pace during most of the economic recovery under President Barack Obama.
The audience clapped politely for Trump, particularly when he backed a new international goal of planting 1 trillion trees worldwide. But the commitment was overshadowed by his touting of the extraction of “traditional fuels,” such as coal and natural gas, that have contributed to global warming.
Although the conference was awash with anxiety over growing nationalism and climate change, Trump brushed off the concerns and seemed to suggest that rising wealth would solve all problems.
“We must reject the perennial prophets of doom and their predictions of the apocalypse,” Trump said. “They are the heirs of yesterday’s foolish fortunetellers.”
But his speech placed the president out of step with the rest of the summit’s goals.
“It flew in the face of everything that Davos is trying to talk about,” said Sanjay Nazerali, the global chief strategy officer at the Dentsu Aegis Network, an international marketing firm based in London.
He described Trump’s speech as a “hymn to nationalism” at a time when leaders were discussing collaborative solutions to problems such as climate change that transcend borders and domestic politics.
“Which nation is going to save the ice caps?” he asked.
Other speakers warned of economic and environmental crises on the horizon.
“The world is in a state of emergency, and the window to act is closing,” said Klaus Schwab, a German engineer and economist who founded the World Economic Forum.
Simonetta Sommaruga, the president of Switzerland, expressed alarm about the effects of climate change as global temperatures rise.
“The world is on fire,” she said. “We see the rainforest burning in the Amazon and the bush fires burning in Australia.”
A star attraction at Davos has been Greta Thunberg, the 17-yearold Swedish climate activist. In her address, she said that “pretty much nothing” had been done to stop global warming despite all of the conversations about the problem.
“Without treating it as a real crisis, we cannot solve it,” she said before Trump spoke.
Trump’s comments had some business leaders pining for earlier versions of U.S. leadership.
“The U.S. used to be a fantastic global leader,” said John Neill, head of Unipart Group, a British manufacturing and logistics company.
“We’re trying to move to a more inclusive, collaborative world,” he said. “Promoting your own country is not in complete conflict, but there was a contrast with the Chinese, who seem more inclined to try to embrace the global agenda for mutual advantage.”