The World Plots Its Response to an 'Adversarial' America

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Luke Vargas (0:34)

Davos gears up for President Trump with all eyes on how hard he pushes for Greenland.

Damian Paletta (0:40)

This is a completely different president than in past years. He's very at peace, ironically, being more adversarial with US allies, and he's not gonna take no for an answer.

Luke Vargas (0:52)

Plus, the US shifts military firepower to the Middle East, and a big day for the Fed's independence at the Supreme Court. It's Wednesday, January 21st. I'm Luke Vargas for The Wall Street Journal, and here is the AM Edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories moving your world today. After a brief delay leaving the US due to mechanical issues on Air Force One, President Trump is said to take center stage today in Davos, Switzerland. The Journal's Jenny Strasberg is at the World Economic Forum and says the president's quest to acquire Greenland is dominating a gathering that organizers had titled A Spirit of Dialogue.

Jenny Strasberg (1:30)

Really, every topic, robotics, artificial intelligence, critical minerals, everything has been overtaken by discussion of Trump's visit today. Everyone's talking about his plan to acquire Greenland, his doubling down on that, despite the fact that global leaders are fighting back. Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada delivering a speech that saw a relatively rare standing ovation.

Scott Bessent (2:03)

We're reminded that we live in an era of great power rivalry, that the rules-based order is fading.

Jenny Strasberg (2:11)

And he called for global leaders to essentially act together and cooperate in the face of what a lot of people see as aggression.

Luke Vargas (2:21)

Though Jenny said that not everyone is taking Carney's approach.

Jenny Strasberg (2:25)

There is a difference in how a lot of people are speaking publicly and how they are speaking privately. In meetings with CEOs and other C-suite executives, consultants, etc., we're hearing a lot about anger and frustration and worry about how this order is being disrupted. But at the same time, a lot of folks won't say their words publicly.

Luke Vargas (2:52)

President Trump is set to speak at 8:30 a.m. Eastern. And here to discuss what we can expect from those remarks, I'm joined by The Journal's Washington Coverage Chief, Damian Paletta. Damian, I went through our archives to recall Trump's first Davos appearance as president back in 2018 He was talking about going after China's trade practices, though he didn't mention China by name. He floated the US joining a rework version of the TPP, that Trans-Pacific Partnership Trade Pack, and he framed his ideological priorities in quite conciliatory terms. He was saying, America first did not mean America alone. Seems like quite a contrast to maybe where we are now.

Damian Paletta (3:28)

Yeah, this is a completely different president than in past years. He has a much different focus. He's very at peace, ironically, being more adversarial with US allies. His approach here is that, you know, this is his second term. He's done playing nice, and he has his eyes on a target, which is the largest island in the world, Greenland, and he's not going to take no for an answer. And so I think we saw most of his first year of his second term, business leaders, world leaders, trying to play nice with him, trying to convince him that there are alternatives to his hard-charging tactics. And now, quite frankly, business leaders and world leaders have to decide whether to finally stand up to him and push back. And the question is, what do they do? What kind of retaliatory measures can they take? Can they band together? Can Europe and Canada actually decouple from the United States? These are the sorts of conversations that are actively taking place at Davos and around the world right now as President Trump prepares to kind of draw his line in the sand or his line in the snow, so to speak, when he says what his actual plan is for Greenland. How is he going to proceed with Russia and Ukraine? All these things kind of click together. Can the new world order replace an old world order that was much more cooperative and maybe slow moving, but much more of an alliance?

How does it work if the US isn't a part of that, isn't leading that alliance anymore?