Between laughs and 'disaster', Trump divides Davos

by Raziye Akkoc, Ali Bekhtaoui and Elodie Le Maou

As Donald Trump appeared on giant screens at the World Economic Forum in Davos, the world's rich and powerful rapturously applauded and snapped photos of the US leader. But by the end, the crowd had mixed feelings.

Executives, diplomats and officials stood in a long line like fans at a rock concert to pack into the main hall of the WEF's congress center in the Swiss ski resort.

"Everyone in the room was listening with rapt attention. He's been the talk of the week without any question," said Daniel Signorelli, a skincare company executive.

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"Some of the things he said were just not true. But at the same time, there were kernels of truth in some of it. I think everyone's kind of taking a wait-and-see approach," he told AFP after the address.

"It shows one reason why he won the election, which is he speaks forcefully, you may not agree with everything, but he speaks with a great deal of force," said Stuart Eizenstat, a former US ambassador to the European Union who is now working for a law firm.

Some attendees were fiercely critical but refused to comment or would only speak to AFP on condition of anonymity.

One American businessman said it was a "disaster. He seems to have completely bought all of the misinformation surrounding him. It's scary".

Meanwhile, another attendee cried "God help us" as he left.

- 'Special' day -

Half an hour before the speech, a long queue began forming, which one Indian businessman said he had only seen twice before in the 30 years he had been coming to the forum -- both times for Trump's speeches in 2018 and 2020.

"Today's special," said a security officer, adding that "we had to have reinforcements".

Another room was also set up to commandeer more of the curious to watch elsewhere.

Trump amused the audience when he mentioned that Saudi Arabia planned to invest $600 billion in the United States but he would ask Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to "round it out" to $1 trillion.

The laughter in the room angered Amnesty International head Agnes Callamard. "The business community has absolutely fallen in love with what he is offering," she said.

- Europe 'hears' Trump -

A quirk of the calendar meant that this year's gathering started on the same day as Trump's inauguration, after which he signed a flurry of executive orders.

Speaking from the White House behind a lectern with the presidential seal and an image of an eagle at his side, Trump reeled off the list of actions he has taken already.

Those in the packed hall included former US secretary of state John Kerry and World Trade Organization chief Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, as well as European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde and International Monetary Fund managing director Kristalina Georgieva.

With a president strongly pushing an America-first approach to trade back in the White House, his threats to slap tariffs on allies have been high on the agenda.

He repeated his warnings, telling businesses to make their products in the United States to benefit from the lowest taxes, or face a tariff.

He also accused Europe of treating the United States "very, very unfairly".

Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide, whose country belongs to the European Economic Area including the EU, defended free trade.

"But we hear what he's saying and now there will be discussions here in the EU and in the European Economic Area that I belong to and also in the World Trade Organization, how we deal with this strong message on tariffs," he said.