Let me say this right from the start.
I am not an international affairs expert. Not even close. There are many people who pay really close attention to global politics, and world economics and I’m not one of them.
Having said that, I did watch (maybe too much) of what was going on this past week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where presidents, prime ministers and potentates, CEO’s, chairmen and celebrities fly into that town in eastern Switzerland every year to confer, confab and, dare I say, kanoodle(?).
The biggest celeb of them all, the 600 pound gorilla, the capo di tutti capi, was, of course, US President Donald J. Trump.
He went to Davos to finalize his so-called “Board of Peace” and to make a deal on Greenland.
Here’s the big takeaway from Davos: The United States the indispensable actor on the world stage.
You may detest Donald Trump’s tactics; he’s a bully, he’s a braggart, he’s a boor. And you may detest him; he’s a bully, he’s a braggart, he’s a boor. But he correctly sees the decline and impotence of Europe, and he’s taking action.
For those who wring their hands and bemoan Trump running roughshod over Europe, get real. The European lipizzaners have been gorging themselves at the American feed trough for decades. And now, (and I apologize for this animal metaphor), the chickens have come home to roost.
If you don’t believe me, just listen to Friedrich Merz the Chancellor of Germany and what he said, loud and clear, this past week at Davos.
Merz declared, “Both Germany and Europe have wasted incredible potential for growth in recent years by dragging feet on reforms and unnecessarily and excessively curtailing entrepreneurial freedoms and personal responsibility…we have become the world champion in overregulation.”
In other words, they’ve screwed themselves, big time.
Their economies are in shambles. They’ve misspent billions on social welfare programs and absurd regulations, that have sucked the incentives out of their workforces to create and to innovate.
The NATO alliance that was created after World War II is a mere shadow of its former self, with the European nations contributing jack shit for decades, until Trump forced them to pony up. And still, Europe is incapable of defending itself without the US.
At the world’s most prominent globalist conference, Europe’s globalism was exposed as an utter failure.
What Chancellor Merz said should be a wake up call to the Eurozone from one of their own; that they’d better right themselves and fast and maybe they can somehow fix the mess they’ve created.
But that would take courage from the leaders of those nations who are basically eunuchs guarding their harems filled with radical leftists and Communists.
And even if they somehow regenerated their stones and got their economies growing, there’s one thing they cannot fix.
They’ve countenanced the immigration of multitudes of Islamists into their countries who have absolutely no desire to assimilate. To the contrary. These migrants have already eaten away at the edges of European societies and in a few years they will swallow them whole, like escargot from a shell.
At Davos this past week, Trump didn’t mince words.
He said, “We believe deeply in the bonds we share with Europe as a civilization…Europe has to get out of the culture they’ve created over the last ten years. It’s horrible what they’re doing to themselves, destroying themselves.”
And then Trump laid it all out as only the President of the United States, the leader of the world’s one and only world superpower, could. “We want strong allies” Trump said, “not seriously weakened ones.”
The leaders of Europe shake their heads and roll their eyes and declare Trump’s US has become an unreliable ally. But it is quite the opposite.
Europe is weak militarily, economically and morally. As an example, its leaders condemn Russian strongman Vladimir Putin, but remain ravenous for his oil, helping fuel the war with Ukraine.
As Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky asked at Davos, “Why can President Trump stop [Russian] tankers and seize oil but Europe doesn’t?” He said, “Europe loves to discuss the future but avoids taking action today. Actions that define what kind of future we will have.”
So let me ask you. Whose vision of the future do you want to choose? America’s or Europe’s? Emanuel Macron’s or Keir Starmer’s vision, or Donald Trump’s?
You may have to enter treatment for your Trump derangement syndrome, but in Davos this past week, that choice became as crystal clear as the waters of a Swiss mountain lake.