Trump vs. Davos Man

I’m writing this dispatch from Davos, Switzerland, where the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting has attracted its usual mix of world leaders, billionaires, and celebrities. For once, though, the media’s attention is focused elsewhere, as Donald Trump took his oath of office in Washington and promised a new “golden age” for America.

The typical Davos attendee has been subject to much caricature. Samuel P. Huntington, a co-founder of this magazine, coined the term “Davos Men” in the early 2000s to advance one such description: people who “have little need for national loyalty, view national boundaries as obstacles that thankfully are vanishing, and see national governments as residues from the past whose only useful function is to facilitate the elite’s global operations.”

On one level, Trump’s stunning comeback can be seen as a repudiation of the Davos Man. National loyalty and boundaries are very much back in vogue, with new tariffs and stricter immigration rules the bedrock of Trump’s vision for a second term. But contradictions abound. In his speech on Monday, Trump promised to be a “peacemaker and unifier” even as he repeated his expansionist plan to take back the Panama Canal and Canada and Greenland remain on high alert for further territorial claims by the president. So much for walls and boundaries.

What about “the elite’s global operations” that Huntington described as essential to the Davos Man? Judging by the attendees at Trump’s inauguration—there are already memes showing the men who run Amazon, Google, Meta, Reliance, Tesla, and Uber—the billionaire class is lining up for what they hope will be a spate of deregulation and tax breaks. If that means getting behind Trump’s nationalism, protectionism, and anti-DEI approach, so be it.

A big question for the next few days—and the next four years—is going to be whether Trump has more power over big business or the other way round. The answer isn’t as simple as it may seem. While Trump seems to have the loyalty of the world’s richest men today, he remains remarkably sensitive to market sentiment. I expect a seesaw tussle for influence.

I’ll be on the ground in Davos the next three days and will bring you some of my FP Live sessions later this week. And on Friday, I’ll send a more dishy dispatch for our Insider members. Sign up here if you’d like to make sure you get it.—Ravi Agrawal, editor in chief

New and Noteworthy

• Trump’s plans: From energy to tariffs and deportations, if you want a one-stop guide to what we know of Trump’s agenda for his first week in office, read Amy Mackinnon and John Haltiwanger’s roundup in FP’s Situation Report.
• Words matter: When a president returns to power—even with a hiatus in between—does their inaugural speech matter, or is it same old, same old? Historian Julian E. Zelizer looks back at Ronald Reagan’s second inaugural address and notes how successful it was at articulating a governing ideology.
• The man who would buy TikTok: What will Trump eventually decide about the fate of TikTok? It’s worth reading what one contender to buy it, Frank McCourt, envisions as its possible future under new ownership.

FP Live

On Gaza and Morality

Feb. 11 | 11 a.m. EST

How will the world look back at Israel’s response to Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack? What does the global polarization over the war and its causes say about our political discourse? Indian public intellectual Pankaj Mishra takes on these questions in a new book, The World After Gaza. In it, he argues that the cleavage in public opinion reflects the competing narratives that shaped our modern world: decolonization in the global south and the post-Holocaust liberal order in the global north. In a conversation with FP’s Ravi Agrawal, Mishra will unpack the shifting balance of power and how to navigate a changing world. Register now, and join FP to submit your questions.

Will Trump Actually Deport Millions?

On Demand

Donald Trump says he won the 2024 U.S. presidential election because of his stance on immigration. He has called undocumented workers “savage gangs” who should be subject to “the largest deportation operation in American history.” Can Trump really do that? What will it cost the U.S. economy? What checks and balances might stand in his way? Columnist Edward Alden joined FP Live to explain what we know of Trump’s plans so far and how likely he is to enact them. Alden is a co-author of the newly released book When the World Closed Its Doors: The COVID-19 Tragedy and the Future of Borders. Watch the conversation on demand, or join FP to read the edited transcript. For more on this topic, read Alden’s recent analysis, “The Great Deportation of 2025.”

Exercise Your Mind:?

After several unsuccessful attempts, South Korean authorities finally detained President Yoon Suk-yeol last Wednesday. Roughly how many police officers were mobilized for the operation?

A. 80

B. 700

C. 3,000

D. 6,000

You can find the answer to this question at the end of this email.

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• FP Events: FP will be on site at key global convenings in the coming weeks, including the World Economic Forum in Davos and the Munich Security Conference. Visit our events page for registration details, or contact us to explore collaboration opportunities at future gatherings.
• Catch up on Ones and Tooze: In the latest episode, Adam and Cameron look at the economics of Los Angeles and what it will cost to rebuild the city after the catastrophic wildfires. Also on the show: Trump’s play for Greenland. Listen to the latest episode now on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Answer: C. Yoon will face questioning over his decision to impose martial law, which has sent South Korea into a period of constitutional chaos, Michelle Kim wrote last month. Test your knowledge of world news last week with more quiz questions.