Trump paints himself as great white hope in racism-drenched Davos speech
Donald Trump turned up in Davos wielding an insult bazooka.He mocked Emmanuel Macron’s aviator sunglasses, chided Mark Carney (“Canada lives because of the United States”), asserted that the Swiss are “only good because of us” and had a dig at Denmark for losing Greenland “in six hours” during the second world war.But beyond the fractious rhetoric, the US president brought a deeper message on Wednesday that sought to unify the west rather than divide it.It was his most dark, insidious and sinister project of all.Trump surmised: Yes, we might have our internal squabbles, but I am bringing tough love because we are all in this together.
We are the standard bearers of western civilisation.We must resist the barbarian hordes.We must save the white man.The ageing president, who in 2024 complained, “We got a lot of bad genes in our country right now,” told the World Economic Forum that he was “derived from Europe”, namely: “100% Scotland, my mother; 100% German, my father.And we believe deeply in the bonds we share with Europe as a civilisation.
”He lamented that “certain places in Europe are not even recognisable, frankly, any more”, blaming culprits that included “unchecked mass migration”.Trump said: “It’s horrible what they’re doing to themselves.They’re destroying themselves, these beautiful, beautiful places.We want strong allies, not seriously weakened ones.”What came next was pure racism as Trump reflected on immigration to his own country, where he has made the Somali community a special target of his deportation rhetoric after recent government fraud cases in Minnesota in which a majority of defendants had Somali roots.
“We’re cracking down on more than $19bn in fraud that was stolen by Somalian bandits,” he said.“Can you believe that Somalia – they turned out to be higher IQ than we thought.I always say these are low-IQ people.How did they go into Minnesota and steal all that money?”Then he got to the heart of the matter: “The situation in Minnesota reminds us that the west cannot mass-import foreign cultures which have failed to ever build a successful society of their own.I mean, we’re taking people from Somalia, and Somalia is a failed – it’s not a nation.
Got no government, got no police, got no nothing.” (Somalia does, in fact, have a government, though not democratically elected.)He launched a bitter tirade at Ilhan Omar, a Somali-born Democratic congresswoman who is a US citizen.Then he insisted: “The explosion of prosperity and conclusion and progress that built the west did not come from our tax codes.It ultimately came from our very special culture.
“This is the precious inheritance that America and Europe have in common, and we share it,We share it but we have to keep it strong,We have to become stronger, more successful and more prosperous than ever,We have to defend that culture and rediscover the spirit that lifted the west from the depths of the dark ages to the pinnacle of human achievement,”Trump’s speech had the fingerprints of Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff and architect of his draconian immigration policy, all over it.
It chimed with an entire discourse of white identity politics festering on the US right.It is there in the “great replacement” theory, a conspiratorial notion that demographic change is engineered to replace white majorities with non-white populations, undermining traditional culture.It is there in Trump’s decision to grant asylum to white South Africans because of a fictitious “white genocide” said to be taking place in their country.It is there in the rabid ideology underpinning Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) thuggish assault on immigrants in Minneapolis.It is also there in Miller’s worldview, which has long promoted racist fears of demographic replacement of white people and civilisation decline.
He has become the editor who turns Trump’s pub chatter into “Make America great again” scripture.Speaking at the rightwing activist Charlie Kirk’s funeral last year, Miller said: “Our lineage and our legacy hails back to Athens, to Rome, to Philadelphia, to Monticello.Our ancestors built the cities.They produced the art and architecture.They built the industry.
We stand for what is good, what is virtuous and what is noble.”Only Miller could have spent last Christmas watching a Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra family TV show from 1967 and had this takeaway: “Imagine watching that and thinking America needed infinity migrants from the third world,” he tweeted.(There was an instant backlash from X users noting that both Martin and Sinatra were the sons of immigrants.)Elon Musk, a white man born in apartheid in South Africa and now the richest person in the world, has amplified such ideas.His feed on X, the social media platform that he owns, is still replete with dire warnings of white civilisation under siege.
Earlier this month he retweeted with a “100%” endorsement a post declaring that: “If white men become a minority, we will be slaughtered … White solidarity is the only way to survive,”Trump’s far-right allies have been worrying of late that he has become distracted by global conquest – Iran, Venezuela, Greenland – and losing sight of his creed of “America first”,On Wednesday he may have been addressing the wealthy elites in Davos but, as ever, his true target audience was the one back home,The message: I am still the great white hope,
Denmark welcomes Trump ruling out force to take Greenland, before ‘future deal’ framework announced – as it happened
Denmark’s foreign minister has said Donald Trump’s statement that he would not use force to take Greenland was positive, even though the US president hasn’t dropped his ambitions to acquire the islandLars Lokke Rasmussen told reporters (Bloomberg reports):“What is clear after this speech is that the president’s ambition [to own Greenland] remains intact.“It is, in isolation, positive that it is being said that military force will not be used, but that does not make the problem go away. The challenge is still there.”Big breaking news tonight from Davos: Donald Trump has announced that he and Nato chief Mark Rutte have agreed the framework of a “future deal” over Greenland.It’s not clear what the details are – Trump says the proposed solution would be a great one for the US, and all NATO NationsAnd significantly, Trump says he won’t impose the 10% tariffs threatened on eight European countries including the UK
Trump steps up Greenland annexation demand and attacks European leaders at Davos
Donald Trump has stepped up his demand to annex Greenland but said the US would not use force to seize it during a rambling, invective-laden speech at Davos where he again lashed out at Europe’s political leaders.Trump gave his speech as they sought to avert a full-scale crisis over Greenland – an effort that appeared successful later as the US president suddenly announced he would delay imposing tariffs on eight European countries from 1 February as negotiations continue.The address to thousands of business and political leaders at the World Economic Form in the Swiss ski resort indicated that while Trump was renouncing the use of military force – for now at least – to wrest control of Greenland, he still intended to wield US economic and diplomatic power to bend European allies to his will.He said he was “seeking immediate negotiations to once again discuss the acquisition of Greenland by the United States”.“I don’t want to use force
Elon Musk floats idea of buying Ryanair after calling CEO ‘an idiot’
Elon Musk has floated the idea of buying the budget airline Ryanair, escalating his public spat with the Irish carrier’s boss, Michael O’Leary.The two outspoken businessmen have locked horns since last week, when O’Leary was asked whether he would follow Lufthansa and British Airways in installing Musk’s Starlink satellite internet technology on his fleet of 650 aircraft.The Ryanair chief executive rejected the idea, saying that adding antennas to the jets would result in “2% fuel drag”, adding an extra $200m-$250m to its $5bn (£3.71bn) annual kerosene bill.Musk said that interpretation was “misinformed” in a post on his X platform, prompting a tit-for-tat exchange of insults, with each calling the other an “idiot” and then the Tesla and SpaceX CEO saying O’Leary should be fired
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Richard Collier-Keywood, the embattled chair of the Welsh Rugby Union, has insisted he has the support of fans and players in Wales as the WRU attempts to drive through radical plans to cut one of the four professional sides.Giving evidence before the House of Commons Welsh affairs select committee, Collier-Keywood – who is facing the threat of a vote of no confidence in his leadership – said he believed “the rugby system was essentially broken” in Wales before he took over and there was widespread acknowledgment that it needed to change.His evidence came on a day when a quartet of Welsh fan representatives testified before that same select committee that he was wrong.Iwan Griffiths, from the Scarlets Supporters Trust, said a poll of their members had revealed that 90% were against the WRU’s proposals. Daniel Hallett, from the Dragons Supporters’ Club, said their own survey had shown “there is no appetite for a potential merger, there is no appetite for jumping ship to another team who have been historic rivals”
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