- Global leaders sparred over globalization and economic dependence, with U.S. officials declaring the model a failure and allies pushing back on energy, trade and supply chains.
- Several countries, including Canada and European states, emphasized greater self-reliance in defense and foreign policy as U.S. influence and tactics came under scrutiny.
- Business and political leaders used the forum to argue that deregulation and a return to “Western” ideas of liberty are key to future growth.
Katy Perry holding hands with a former Canadian prime minister, Europe’s central banking president walking out during a Trump administrator’s remarks, French President Emmanuel Macron delivering his speech in aviators... The 2026 World Economic Forum has been memorable.
Much attention has centered on President Donald Trump and his focus on Greenland, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg of news emerging from the forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Howard Lutnick says ‘globalization has failed the West’
When asked about the U.S.’s intentions for Greenland, Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick responded by critiquing western countries’ economic dependence.
“The Trump administration and myself are here to make a very clear point, globalization has failed the West and the United States of America,” he said. “It’s a failed policy, and it’s what the WEF (World Economic Forum) has stood for, which is, export, offshore, far-shore, find the cheapest labor in the world and the world is a better place for it.”
Globalization “has left America behind, and it has left the American workers behind,” he continued.
Then Lutnick criticized Europe’s energy portfolio, which focuses on solar and wind. “Why would Europe agree to be net zero by 2030 when they don’t make a battery?” he asked. “So if they go 2030, they are deciding to be subservient to China, who makes the batteries.”
Rachel Reeves, the U.K.’s Chancellor of the Exchequer (the second most powerful politician in the country), responded to Lutnick with equal criticism. As she began, Lutnick said, “We’re friends,” and she cut in and said, “Were.”
Reeves agreed that countries should have their own secure economies but added, “90% of your critical minerals come from China. You need to wean yourselves off those.”
She also agreed that the U.K. needs to diversify its energy portfolio and added that the country should invest more in nuclear power.
Reeves concluded, “What I would urge Howard and others in the administration to think of is how your allies can also help you achieve your objectives, which are in your national interest as well as helping all of the western world to thrive.”
Later, Lutnick returned some criticism to the U.K. for being hostile to American tech companies.
American tech companies can’t invest in Europe or the U.K. “if they have the Digital Services Act, the Digital Markets Act, the Digital this, the digital that,” Lutnick said.
Canada’s prime minister distances himself from the U.S.
In his speech on Wednesday, Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada implied the U.S. has destroyed the West’s “rules-based international order” and is now conducting its foreign affairs by “economic coercion.”
“Great powers have begun using economic powers as weapons, tariffs as leverage, financial infrastructure as coercion, supply chains as vulnerabilities to be exploited,” Carney said.
He added, “middle powers” like Canada should join together through their shared values of “respect for human rights, sustainable development, solidarity, sovereignty and territorial integrity of various states.”
To boost his country’s own self-reliance, Carney said Canada will double its defense spending by 2030. And within the last week, Carney said he’d made “new strategic partnerships with China and Qatar.”
As he concluded he said the countries present “have a choice: compete with each other for favor or combine to create a third path with impact.”
European leaders debate Trump’s influence on the continent’s self-defense
In a conversation with Finland’s and Poland’s presidents, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte told his audience that they “can be happy” President Trump is in office, “because he has forced us in Europe . . . to take more care of our own defense.”
Rutte told the panel that without Trump, members of NATO wouldn’t have bumped their own fiscal contributions to the organization to 2%.
At another point in the panel, Finnish President Alexander Stubb said he believes “unequivocally” that “Europe can defend itself without the Americans.”
Then several minutes later, the panel’s moderator said, “You said earlier that Europe can defend itself without the Americans, if it comes down—" and Stubb interrupted, “Well, not exactly, that’s not a quote.”
Rutte said the U.S. still has 80,000 soldiers in Europe.
Biden administration policies ‘cost the U.S. economy dearly,’ CEO says
In a smaller WEF interview, Wednesday, Citadel CEO Ken Griffin said keeping up with the Biden administration was “painful.”
“I mean, our constant friction at Citadel with the government, across umpteen different aspects of our business, was exhausting,” he said. “And to have that literally end on one day — election day — gives you so much energy as an entrepreneur to go back and build your ... business."
Griffin said he saw relief spread across many companies led by American executives. “The end of the regulatory onslaught has been an extraordinary boom for American business,” he said.
“There were so many decisions that were horribly thought-out in terms of economic decisions,” Griffin continued. He referenced Spirit Airlines proposed merger with Jet Blue, which the Biden administration stopped.
“Spirit’s in bankruptcy today . . . It cost the U.S. economy dearly,” he said.
Javier Milei says a better future only exists ‘if we return to the roots of the West’
As Argentina’s president, Javier Milei, began his speech on Wednesday, he said the world “must never forget” the words of American economist and historian Thomas Sowell, who acknowledged that while socialism sounds “very appealing,” it “always ends badly — appallingly badly.”
The South American president then referenced socialism’s failures in Venezuela.
Its implementation collapsed 80% of the Venezuela’s GDP, but it also led to the country’s internal corruption — “namely the establishment of a bloody narco-dictatorship whose terrorist tentacles spread across our entire continent in the Americas,” Milei said.
Thus, Milei explained, “it is necessary to once again promote the ideas of freedom” and its “ethical and moral virtue.”
The most responsible thing policy makers and leaders can do is to “stop pestering those who are creating a better world,” he said. “Regulation kills growth.”
As he concluded, Milei recounted his previous addresses at the World Economic Forum.
“In 2026, I bring you good news,” he said. “The world has begun to awaken. The best proof of this is what is happening in the Americas with the rebirth of the ideas of liberty. Therefore, the Americas will be the beacon of light, which will once again illuminate the entire West.”
He continued, “We have a better future ahead, but that better future exists only if we return to the roots of the West, which means returning to the ideas of liberty. May God bless the West.”