Trump — and the Davos man

Jan 20, 2025

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HAPPY INAUGURATION DAY. Thousands of delegates are arriving on the snowy slopes of Davos as the World Economic Forum gets underway today. The annual pilgrimage to the Alpine resort, now in its 55th year, runs through Friday with more than 3,000 participants (not to mention thousands of hangers-on) scheduled to attend.

SNOW-GO ZONE: Some early birds got to town over the weekend, mostly to get some skiing in. The weather is a near-perfect 0C with the sun shining down on Europe’s highest city. (It's not as cold here as it is in Washington, where today’s presidential inauguration has been forced to move indoors.)

Around the pistes all the chatter is about one thing: Donald Trump’s return to the White House. More on that below, including the low-down on a string of inauguration watch parties planned tonight.

But first, here’s who’s on the Davos guest list this year.

WHO’S COMING: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy; Chinese Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang; European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen; footballer David Beckham; Prime Minister of Vietnam Pham Minh Chinh; Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani; Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Mustafa; Israeli President Isaac Herzog; Belgian fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg; Prime Minister of Malaysia Anwar Ibrahim; European Parliament President Roberta Metsola; South African President Cyril Ramaphosa; former British Prime Minister Tony Blair; NATO chief Mark Rutte; Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez; German Chancellor Olaf Scholz: German opposition leader Friedrich Merz; Polish President Andrzej Duda; Latvian President Edgars Rinkēvičs.

WHO’S NOT: U.S. President-elect Donald Trump (though he will deliver a virtual address on Thursday); French President Emmanuel Macron; U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer; Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau; Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi; Russian President Vladimir Putin; Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

WHO KNOWS? Elon Musk. There are rumors that the world’s richest man and Trump confidante may drop in later in the week, despite several years of shunning the event he has described as "boring."

How times change: But a former WEF exec told POLITICO's Power Play podcast it wasn’t always that way. Adrian Monck, who ran the forum’s communications operation until 2023, reveals: “ They've never shared the begging emails from Elon Musk when he was a bit younger, trying to get his foot in the door to go to Davos. But they do exist, I can tell you. And they're pretty craven, miserable and pathetic. The truth is that people want to be there and perhaps when they're too big they can afford to turn their noses up.” Listen here.

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DAVOS MAN COMES IN FROM THE COLD

ALL IN THE TIMING: Trump will be sworn in as 47th president of the United States today just as the official opening ceremony of the World Economic Forum gets underway at the Congress Center. Trump twice attended Davos during his first term in office — unusual for U.S. presidents, who usually stay away. This year he’ll address the forum on Thursday, just days after his inauguration. WEF officials say they expect a “broad footprint” from the new administration to jet in later in the week, though names have yet to be confirmed.

INAUGURATION GUEST LIST: Some Trump-friendly leaders like Argentina’s President Javier Milei will fly to Davos after attending today’s inauguration at the Capitol. POLITICO has a lowdown on which Europeans nabbed an invite. Spoiler alert: It’s lots of right-wingers including Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and British MP Nigel Farage.

TikTok watch: But the big question is whether TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew takes up his invite to the inauguration, after Trump intervened on Sunday to save the China-linked app from a federal ban. The move came in response to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on Friday that upheld a law that effectively barred the video-sharing app from the States.

BILLIONAIRES’ CLUB: With Trump taking office, the Davos set arrives on the Magic Mountain this year with newfound swagger. Even as the rest of the world frets about Trump’s threats of a trade war, Wall Street has never had it so good, as your Global Playbook author reports in this story.

Riding high: Trump is packing his Cabinet and coveted administration advisory slots with deep-pocketed figures from the finance, tech and crypto worlds. Among them: Cantor Fitzgerald boss and Davos regular Howard Lutnick (Trump’s pick for Commerce secretary); billionaire venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, who has been advising Trump during the interregnum at Mar-a-Lago; and crypto backer Paul Atkins as Securities and Exchange Commission boss.

Trump bump: Many WEF attendees are much richer today than they were a year ago. The S&P 500 soared by 23 percent last year, boosted by tech and AI stocks. High-profile financiers like Verizon’s Hans Vestberg and Goldman’s David Solomon (both of whom are expected in Davos) were also in the crowd cheering on Trump as he rang the opening bell on Wall Street last month.

Time to pop the Champagne: The good news keeps coming for the corporate types arriving in Davos this week. America’s biggest banks reported record earnings in recent days — Morgan Stanley’s profits soared in the last quarter, while JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs and other big beasts also pleasantly surprised their shareholders. The bumper profit for Citigroup in particular was good news for its CEO, Davos-regular Jane Fraser, who has been grappling with the bank’s proposed overhaul.

Upbeat: The bullish vibe is captured in a new report by Capgemini out today, which finds that business leaders are more confident about the year ahead compared to a year ago. Sixty-two percent are upbeat about their organization’s prospects this year, up 6 percentage points on last year. Read the full report here.

Less bullish: But not everyone agrees the new U.S. administration will deliver for business. “Superficially, Trump is good for business. Trump literally made most of his decisions in his first term through the prism of the stock market,” said Davos-regular Anthony Scaramucci. “But if you tell me that he’s going to take Greenland, or deploy forces into Panama, or see if he can annex Canada — this causes instability. It makes people question the judgment of the American government and the American people, and I think that has negative consequences — including on the markets.”

COUNTING DOWN: There are several inauguration watch parties in Davos tonight. Nasdaq will be live streaming from Capitol Hill over cocktails and canapés at their Nasdaq Basecamp on the promenade. Guests at Bloomberg’s opening-night reception will be watching (you guessed it) Bloomberg’s live coverage of the inauguration. Other events include Bill Browder’s legendary dinner at the Oberon and a Manchester United event with RED and Qualcomm at Qualcomm House (will a certain Man U veteran player pop by?).

America the beautiful: A new addition to the promenade this year is the USA House, where guests can celebrate “the spirit of American democracy, the power of convening, and partnerships,” according to organizers. Hot drinks and light bites are served daily.

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HOW THE OTHER HALF LIVE

THE HAVES AND THE HAVE-NOTS: Oxfam published its annual Davos report this morning and the result ain’t pretty if you’re not in the super-rich club. Billionaire wealth grew by $2 trillion last year — three times faster than the year before. Meanwhile, the number of people living in poverty — about 3.5 billion — has barely changed since 1990.

The Trump effect: Oxfam International Executive Director Amitabh Behar doesn’t pull any punches, describing Trump as “the crown jewel of this oligarchy” who’s “backed and bought by the world’s richest man, Elon Musk.” In a statistic that should give everyone pause for thought here on the slopes, the report estimates that 36 percent of billionaire wealth these days is inherited.

Reality bites: The findings chime with research from the World Bank published just ahead of Davos which finds that while the global economy is projected to expand by 2.7 percent this year and next, developing economies will finish 2025 with the weakest long-term growth outlook since 2000.

A QUESTION OF TRUST: Edelman’s annual trust barometer, another mainstay of the Davos calendar, also contains some warnings — particularly for the politicians who are gathering here in Davos. The majority of respondents to the annual survey, which charts the level of trust among the public for institutions, believe that government and business harm them and serve narrow interests — and four in 10 approve of hostile activism to bring about change.

Speaking of activism: Protesters were out in force this weekend ahead of WEF kick-off. "Davos Billionaires Party while the World Burns" and "We can no longer afford the 1%" were some of the signs held aloft by the Young Socialists Switzerland on the promenade Sunday. Greenpeace protesters blocked the road between Klosters and Davos, causing hours of gridlock.

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AROUND TOWN

FORECAST: Low minus 5C/23F; high 3C/37F.

GOODIES GALORE: Delegates arriving at check-in received the usual navy WEF backpack (time for a design update anyone?). The free shoe grippers have made another appearance and will help guard against nasty falls on the ice.

OVERHEARD ... on the Heathrow-Zurich Swiss Air flight Saturday: Passengers discussing whether they’ll have time to update their Rolexes at Davos this year as they browsed the in-flight magazine. “We may have more time when we’re in Geneva in March,” mused one.

TRAVEL PRO TIP: If you're flying Lufthansa or Swiss Air into Zurich airport and you've got top-tier frequent flyer status (or you're at the pointy end of the plane), you have access to an arrivals lounge. If you use the showers, you can take advantage of an ironing service — just drop your clothes into the compartment by the door and they'll press them for you while you freshen up. The lounge is open from 6 a.m. to 1 p.m. — it's on your left when you pass baggage claim. H/t Filecoin Foundation's Clara Tsao.

GO FORTH AND HUSTLE! That was the message from Gillian Tett, provost of King’s College Cambridge, at last night’s Oxbridge at Davos Networking Reception at the SDG tent at the National Hotel. “It’s time that we at Oxford and Cambridge borrowed some of that American hustle,” Tett, a renowned Financial Times journalist, told attendees.

Channel your inner American: “It’s time to get a little less British,” she said, noting that over her years attending Davos she has had a string of invitations for events hosted by MIT, Harvard and Stamford — but British institutions, not so much. “There’s nothing wrong with those invitations [from U.S. universities], but it’s time to put Oxford and Cambridge on the map, particularly as we build the British economy.”

Spotted at last night’s event: Sarah Hammer from the Wharton School; Kelly Richdale from Sandbox AQ; André Hoffmann of Roche; Jonathan Cardenas of Oxbridge at Davos; Mark Vlasic of Georgetown Law; Ville Korpela of Prometheus Capital; John Arundel of Perdicus Communications; IBM’s Mark Hughes; Mark Turrell of UnDavos; Patient Safety Commissioner for England Henrietta Hughes; Chad Frischmann of Regenerative Intelligence.

BEER WITH US: Global Playbook tried out a sample of local microbrewery Davoser Craft Beer's offerings at Mark Mueller-Eberstein’s Happy Hour last night. The Winterbier was the crowd favorite, though the Blonde was also a hit.

Spotted at the event: IQM CEO Dr. Jan Goetz; Filecoin Foundation’s Clara Tsao and Aaron Stanley; Open to Debate’s Clea Conner; former Foreign Minister of Liechtenstein Katrin Eggenberger; Bloomberg Live's Jenn Roach.

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AGENDA

— First Impressions: Inauguration Day; Aspen 1; Congress Centre; 3 p.m.

— Crystal Awards 2025 featuring football star David Beckham, architect Riken Yamamoto, fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg; Congress Hall; Congress Centre; 6 p.m.

— WEF Opening Ceremony, Congress Hall; Congress Center, 6.30 p.m.

— Open Forum: All Abilities Welcome; Auditorium; Swiss Alpine School; 6.30 p.m.

— WEF Welcome Reception; Congress Hall Lobby; Congress Center; 7.15 p.m.

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