
Trump to Davos: “A Nation’s Highest Duty is to its Own Citizens”
President Donald Trump took his powerful message of economic nationalism right to the heart of the globalists on Tuesday, telling the collected elite in Davos that he would never apologize for putting America first. In a speech at the World Economic Forum, Trump said that his economic agenda had led the U.S. soaring to new heights, put money back in the pocket of the working and middle class, and provided a blueprint for any nation that wanted to escape the siren song of globalism.
“A nation’s highest duty is to its own citizens,” Trump said in Switzerland. “Honoring this truth is the only way to build faith and confidence in the market system. Only when governments put their own people first will people be fully invested in their national futures.
“A pro-worker, pro-citizen, pro-family agenda demonstrates how a nation can thrive when its communities, its companies, its government work together for the good of the whole nation,” Trump continued. “Today I hold up the American model as an example to the world of a working system of free enterprise that will produce the most benefits for the most people in the 21st century and beyond.”
Trump reminded those in attendance that a system of fair immigration and trade formed the backbone of his 2016 campaign.
“I think it’s primarily the reason that I ran,” Trump said, noting the American factories that were closing by the hundreds in the Midwest.
Interestingly, Trump’s speech – as full of economic nationalism and hyperbole as any he’s ever given – did not land with an especially loud roar among the global elite in Davos. They seem to have grown used to the brash U.S. president in a way that the American left never will. Indeed, the American left may be part of the reason why Trump no longer generates the type of shockwaves that he used to when he took his swagger overseas. These rich elite know they are better off with Trump and the Republicans in charge of the world economy than they are with a wackadoodle like Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren. If one of those off-the-chain, mindless socialists gets hold of the reigns of power, you really will see global turmoil.
The executives and leaders who gather in Switzerland every year may pay lip service to social causes and all that nonsense, but they know one thing above all else: Capitalism works. They may not love the Trumpian prescription for nationalism, but it’s a hell of a lot better than what’s waiting in the U.S. wings.