Global leaders are worried about President Donald Trump after he abruptly canceled a trip to the World Economic Forum in the Davos, Switzerland. The president ended his trip in part because of the government shut down and moments after he canceled House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's overseas trip.
His absence at the conference left several to wonder, "What on earth is Donald Trump up to?"
"In 2018, Davos was basking in a robust global economy as Donald Trump pledged that 'America is open for business,'" Bloomberg reported. "One year on, the U.S. government is partially shut and the market ebullience that greeted the president’s corporate tax overhaul is a distant memory."
Since his last appearance at Davos, Trump has disrupted traditional political and social norms and has spent the majority of 2018 upsetting America's closest allies.
The chief global political analyst at Citigroup Inc. and a WEF regular, Tina Fordham told Bloomberg: “The number one question in the mind of leaders in Davos now is what on earth is Donald Trump up to? We’ve very clearly moved in terms of investor sentiment from the Trump bump euphoria surrounding tax cuts and deregulation to fears of a Trump slump.”
World leaders are still figuring out how to work with Trump. Some are taking the approach of playing the "waiting game" in order to just " sit him out."
“There is no longer this idea that he’d be reined in by the establishment and that you’d have a fairly normal administration,” said Stephen Walt, a professor of international affairs at Harvard University. “People are now fully aware that he’s extremely impulsive and erratic and will continue to challenge the status quo. That means something different depending on where you are.”