Trump got a few of the things he wanted from his Davos trip, but it’s come at the cost of the rest of the world feeling like they need to pretend to like him. Here’s everything you need to know from the last 24 hours in Trumpworld
Donald Trump arrived in Davos with a shopping list. Greenland, obviously, was at the top. But he’d settle, apparently, for bits of Greenland. He wanted to set up a supranational organisation on a scale that would rival the United Nations, but with him as chairman for life. Again, he’d have to settle for frisking a few dictators and authoritarians for a billion dollars.
This shopping trip, though, has been particularly expensive. These moves – along with his unprompted drive-by on soldiers who served in Afghanistan – have sparked the biggest backlash of his second term. And unlike previous backlashes against Trump, it’s not jt been everyday folk expressing their revulsion.
A couple of months ago, European nations would have been lining up to join the Board of Peace, in the hope that appeasing him would be less bad for them than opposing him. Yesterday they all snubbed it, leaving him to have photo ops with the likes of Bahrain, Belarus and Saudi Arabia.
You can tell a tide has turned because even Keir Starmer is standing up to him now. I’ve always said there would be a time Trump would do something up with which we would not put. Honestly I thought it’d come a little sooner.
After this, Starmer and the rest of America’s former allies no longer have to pretend they like him. And that’s the cost of his shopping list.
The first year of Trump’s second term was unprecedented. In the second year we’ll learn what happens when someone with an insane amount of power, who is largely amoral and thinks he’s immortal is backed into a corner, marginalised by the free world, just like he was marginalised by New York society through his whole life. My bet is it’s not going to be pretty.
Meanwhile, in Trumpworld
- Keir Starmer hits back at vile insult to our troops
- Trump gives TikTok to his mates
- White House confuses Belarus and Belgium
- More Greenland details…in two weeks
- Where’s the money going?
- JD Vance’s Titanic howler
Here’s what you need to know
1. Keir Starmer hits back over Trump’s vile quip about Nato soldiers
Donald Trump last night said of Nato: “We’ve never needed them. They’ll say they sent some troops to Afghanistan and this or that. And they did. They stayed a little back, off the front lines.”
This has, understandably, upset a great many people – given the UK sent something like 9,500 troops to join the US in a Nato led force during the war in Afghanistan, during which 405 Brits died due to enemy action. And it’s prompted Keir Starmer, for the second time this week, to tell Trump he was wrong. His spokesman said the US President was “wrong to diminish the role of Nato troops, including British forces, in Afghanistan following the 9/11 attacks on the US”
And today, Starmer himself said: “If I had mispoken in that way I would certainly apologise.”
A visibly angry Mr Starmer said: “I will never forget their courage, their bravery and the sacrifice they made for their country. “There were many also who were injured, some with life-changing injuries. I consider President Trump’s remarks to be insulting and frankly appalling and I am not surprised they have caused such hurt to the loved ones of those who were killed or injured and, in fact, across the country.”
Veterans minister Al Carns also weighed in, saying Trump’s comments were “ridiculous”. Former Marines Colonel Mr Carns said: “”On Afghanistan, frankly, this is utterly ridiculous. Many courageous and honourable service personnel from many nations fought on the front line. Many fought way beyond it. I served five tours in Afghanistan, many alongside my American colleagues. We shed blood, sweat and tears together. Not everybody came home. These are bonds, I think, forged in fire, protecting the US, our shared interests, but actually protecting democracy overall. And I’d suggest whoever believes these comments come have a whisky with me, my colleagues, their families, and importantly, the families of those that have made the ultimate sacrifice for both of our nations.”
2. Trump hit back with a snarky Truth Social post
Trump, apparently in response to the backlash over his comments, posted on Truth Social: “Maybe we should have put NATO to the test: Invoked Article 5, and forced NATO to come here and protect our Southern Border from further Invasions of Illegal Immigrants, thus freeing up large numbers of Border Patrol Agents for other tasks.”
(Article 5 is the part of the Nato treaty that requires member states to come to each other’s defence if under attack).
3. TikTok deal finally goes through
Trump’s deal to carve up TikTok’s US business and give it to his golfing buddies has gone through. The app has established a new majority American-owned joint venture that it says will “operate under defined safeguards that protect national security”. Cloud software platform Oracle – whose chairman and CTO is Trump buddy Larry Ellison – will be responsible for storing the data of TikTok’s more than 200 million American users. But Chinese firm ByteDance will retain 19.9% of the shares in the spinoff.
4. White House gets Belgium and Belarus mixed up
Many were surprised at the list of countries joining Donald Trump’s poundshop SPECTRE… sorry… ‘Board of Peace’ on Thursday. Not least the people of Belgium, who saw their country listed among some of the world’s most oppressed and authoritarian nations. Belgian Foreign minister Maxime Prévot quickly popped up to confirm Belgium’s inclusion was an error, and they had not, in fact, joined the Evil UN. According to the Belgian Government, the White House literally got Belgium confused with Belarus.
5. Trump says Putin could pay $1bn entry fee with frozen assets
On his way back from Davos, Trump was asked about Vladimir Putin saying he could pay the $1bn entry fee for Trump’s Dictator Clubhouse* with frozen assets seized under sanctions from the US and around the world. Trump did not seem at all bothered by this idea. “I don’t know about that. I’ve heard that a little. Who said that?” Trump asked. Putin himself, he was told. “But he said he was going to use his money…If he’s using his money yeah, it’s fine. He’s using his money.”
* No girls allowed
6. Trump laughs off new bruise as a side effect of aspirin
Trump was obviously asked about the honking new bruise on his left hand. The White House frequently dismisses concerns about bruises on his right hand, saying they’re from constant handshaking. But he never, ever shakes with his left, so what gives?
“I clipped it on the table. So I put a little–what do they call it–cream on it. I clipped it. I would say take aspirin if you like your heart, but don’t take aspirin if you don’t want to have a little bruising. I take the big aspirin. When you take the big aspirin, they tell you that you bruise. The doctors said, “You don’t have to take that, sir. You are very healthy.” I said, “I’m not taking any chances.” That’s one of the side effects of taking aspirin.
7. Putin is welcome to join the League of Supervillains, but not Carney
When Trump’s asked why he wants reviled war criminal Vladimir Putin to join his little boys club, he usually says some formulation on “we want everyone to join.”
Well, not *everyone* it turns out. Last night, Trump posted on Truth Social informing Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney he was withdrawing his invitation to the Board of Peace.
Carney, we’re sure, is heartbroken.
8. HOUSE!
An audibly slurring Trump was asked on the plane home about what is actually happening with Greenland.
Trump, you’ll remember, has been telling anyone who will listen that only ownership will do. If you don’t own it, “psychologically”, he said, you treat it differently – making the argument about how one might behave differently in a rental house than one where your name is on the deeds. Let’s stop there for a moment, because my experience of rental housing goes back a long way, and the main difference between that and owning is that you live in constant fear of making marks on the paintwork, peppered with extreme relief whenever the boiler or washing machine breaks because that’s not your problem. Point is, Trump has been all like ‘we want to own the washing machine’ for weeks now. So, again, what gives?
“We’ll have something in two weeks,” The President said. Close watchers of the President will recognise that timescale. It’s what he says when he wants to promise something is coming, and make it sound like it’s coming soonish but not today. This is a tactic he’s employed for more than a decade – most recently in response to questions on when he’d decide whether to join Israel in strikes on Iran.
Here’s some more examples…
9. Trump is VERY evasive about where that money is going to go…but made quite a telling remark
Trump was asked exactly what will happen to the $1billion every permanent member state is paying to join the Board of Peace, Trump was typically evasive. “That’s a lot of money,” he sad. “But it’s nothing compared to the value of peace.”
Which kinda makes it sound like extortion. I’m just saying that if I was a dictator running an oppressive regime, and I wanted to keep on being oppressive, making absolutely sure neither the US, nor anyone else who is afraid of the US, would bother me about it ever again…I’d probably think $1bn was a bargain.
Given how he’s behaved with US CEOs – demanding they bend the knee and pledge fealty to him, bringing him all manner of gold and trinkets lest he slap them with tariffs or regulator investigations or legal hurdles, it’s not a massive stretch to imagine the Board of Peace has been set up as a global protection racket.
Meanwhile, Trump builds up a slush fund of $20 billion over which there is no congressional oversight or control. Kind of money that might pay for, I dunno, a private army. You know, when the time comes.
10. Trump went on another posting spree on the plane
Trump jetted back from Davos to DC overnight, and someone let him keep his phone on him.
“What a great trip to Davos it was,” he said in one of the more coherent posts. “So many things accomplished, including the framework of a deal with NATO on Greenland. Also, the BOARD OF PEACE. WOW!!! MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” Altogether he posted about 70 times, including retweets, in the space of an hour.
During that time he had pops at Gavin Newsom – who was following Trump around Davos like a particularly shiny bad smell, presumably trying to irritate him into submission – Mark Carney, Nato and Fed Chair Jerome Powell. He claimed the people who brought the Tariff Case to the Supreme Court were “very China oriented”.
(It was brought by Learning Resources, a manufacturer of educational children’s toys including Spike the Fine Motor Hedgehog and Pretend and Play Cash Register. They also make a few Numberblocks toys, and real ones know).
He touted his front cover of Newsmax’s digital only magazine, alongside such “why didn’t I think of that” features as “INSIDE JESUS’ Childhood home.” He genuinely posted about the cold wave about to hit the US, with “WHATEVER HAPPENED TO GLOBAL WARMING???” But of course, the most frequently posted about subject was conspiracy theories about the 2020 election having been stolen. Of course it was.
11. JD Vance’s Titanic howler
JD Vance last night gave his excuse for why we’re 12 months into the Trump administration and he hasn’t fixed the US economy yet.
“Yes, there is an affordability crisis,” he admitted to a crowd in Ohio. “Caused by Joe Biden’s policies.”
He added: “You don’t turn the Titanic around overnight.”
Someone might want to point out to JD that the Titanic, famously, never turned round.