The Daily Signal - Victor Davis Hanson: Why Davos Hates Trump—And Democracy

Episode Date: January 24, 2025

In this edition of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words,” Hanson delves into the inauguration of Donald Trump and its coinciding with the annual meeting of the elite, ’smart people,’ the World Economic Forum’ at Davos, Switzerland. For Victor's latest thoughts, go to: https://victorhanson.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If we got together all of the quote-unquote smart people, and we put them all in this beautiful, idyllic place, they can think up utopian dreams that then can be, from the top down, implemented by Hoypoloi, the many. If you don't know what Davos is, don't worry about it's not that important in some ways. I mean, it's not doing a lot of good for the rest of us. But it is important because it has aspirations that are quite dangerous. Hello, I'm Victor Davis Hansen for the Daily Signal.

This is the week of the inauguration of Donald Trump, but it also coincides not just with Martin Luther King's birthday in the same day as the inauguration, but also the meeting of the world's elite at Davos, Switzerland, lorded over by 86-year-old Klaus Schwab, who created this organization. If you don't know what Davos is, don't worry about it. It's not that important in some ways. I mean, it's not doing a lot of good for the rest of us,

but it is important because it has aspirations that are quite dangerous. Basically, its premise is that if we got together all of the quote-unquote smart people, those are people who have letters after their name, or they live in the right zip codes, or they're wealthy, or their professors, or their key government officials, and we put them all in this beautiful, idyllic place, they can think up utopian dreams that then can be, from the top down implemented by Hoy Palloy, the many.

And they have actual disgust for elected governments because you see elected governments make mistakes in their view. They elect people and then they do the wrong thing. They have these 19th century borders. They believe in legal-only immigration. They don't believe in redistribution of money. They believe in free market capitalism. They are opposed to diversity.

equity and inclusion. And they don't want to put mandates on corporations, ESG, about the environment and social questions and governance questions. They let the market adjudicate, which you can't do. Now, the reason that they're really angry this week is Donald Trump was elected the United States, and he is a Jacksonian populist nationalist who believes the U.S. Constitution and the creation of this last great hope for Earth is unique and singular, and he trusts it and its constitution more than he does these Davos international organizations, who, remember, are not elected by anybody. They're appointed.

So Donald Trump immediately got out of the international criminal court. This was an international body that, if implemented in the case of the United States fully, it would say that a major or colonel in the United States could be prosecuted. if he issued an order that they felt was inhumane. He got out of the World Health Organization. That was pretty much a Chinese-dominated world organization that functioned during the COVID crisis largely with the help of Anthony Fauci and Peter Dasik

to suppress the truth that that virus was created in the Wuhan lab. May or may not have been a biological weapon, may or may not have escaped naturally by mistake. But in any case, Donald Trump poses the threat to the Davos crowd. And more importantly, his threat is amplified because it works. People who have followed the model of Milton Friedman and free market economics in Europe, in Eastern Europe, in Argentina, and the United States are doing very well. When the EU was created, its GDP was almost 25,000. years ago the same as the United States, and that it started to implement these Davos-like

issues and laws and policy, and now it has almost a little more than half the GDP of the United States, and only about 60 percent of the per capita income. So the people at Davos know that their socialist, globalist model doesn't work, and they know that people don't want to listen to them anymore because when people adopt these views, their economy slows, they get poor, their borders are overrun, illegal immigrants come and cannot be assimilated or integrated, and the people feel they have less security, prosperity, and freedom. And rather than addressing those concerns, and so having at Davos, why is Donald Trump being elected? Why was Millie? Maybe we can learn from these people, because they represent elections and freedom. No. No.

It's Donald Trump, how dare you say this? Millie is wrong. And so they too, as I've said in an earlier broadcast, they have forgotten nothing and learned nothing. And each year, Davos becomes more and more irrelevant and the people who oppose them and put their trust in the people in the U.S. Constitution in freedom and individual liberty, do better and better.

Thank you very much. This is Victor Davis-Hansson for the Daily Signal. Thank you so much for tuning in today. Please subscribe to the Daily Signal for our next episode.