President Donald Trump ranted about coverage of his decision to skip a Swiss economic conference that brings together the world’s top economists, CEOs and foreign leaders on the first day of the annual gathering.
Trump on Tuesday offered up Secretary of State Mike Pompeo via video on Tuesday, instead, as news outlets commented on the gaping hole that the Trump administration’s absence left.
After an MSNBC segment in which host Stephanie Ruhle detailed concerns she’d heard from CEOs about the United State’s failure to show and the rise of nationalism, Trump accused his detractors of phony sanctimony.
‘Last time I went to Davos, the Fake News said I should not go there. This year, because of the Shutdown, I decided not to go, and the Fake News said I should be there,’ he contended. ‘The fact is that the people understand the media better than the media understands them!’
President Donald Trump ranted about coverage of his decision to skip a Swiss economic conference that brings together the world’s top economists, CEOs and foreign leaders on the first day of the annual gathering
Trump on Tuesday offered up Secretary of State Mike Pompeo via video on Tuesday, instead, as news outlets commented on the gaping hole that the Trump administration’s absence left
Tweet followed on an MSNBC segment in which host Stephanie Ruhle detailed concerns she’d heard from CEOs about the United State’s failure to show and the rise of nationalism
Trump called off his trip to Davos for the World Economic Forum after it became clear the partial government shutdown was nowhere near ending.
He cancelled administration officials’ appearances, too, when their trip on a military jet came under scrutiny last week. Trump grounded all government officials’ trips abroad, except for his own, on military planes for the duration of the partial shutdown.
Britain’s Theresa May and France’s Emmanuel Macron also skipped the WEF this year as they battled political crises at home. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, India’s Narendra Modi and Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa did not make the journey, either.
Neither did Chinese President Xi Jinping, CNN Business reported.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and German Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany did, however, make the journey that will have them rubbing elbows with the titans of business.
The conference’s theme this year is: ‘Globalization 4.0: Shaping a Global Architecture in the Age of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.’
Pompeo, the U.S. secretary of state, delivered remarks on Tuesday to the conference via satellite. He trumpeted populist movements that elected Trump and Macron and set off Brexit in the U.K., according to the Japan Times.
He also mentioned the American president’s disruptive actions that have strained old alliances and put the U.S. and China on a collision course.
‘It is the case that sometimes leadership and asking hard questions drives others to be a little concerned. Perhaps they’re not quite ready to stare these problems in the face,’ he said. ‘But we are — President Trump is. We know that these challenges must be confronted.’
The U.S. president’s cancellation has been a special topic of conversation after Trump, a professed nationalist, spoke at the gathering of globalists last year.
Ruhle had just reported from Davos on her program, which MSNBC’s Hallie Jackson was guest hosting from the U.S., on the effect of Trump’s absence at the four-day conference when the president sent out his tweet chiding the media.
‘Many of these topics, we’re not going to have a seat at the table,’ she said. ‘I spoke to the president of Microsoft, who’s concerned that when you’re talking about artificial intelligence, the future of cybersecurity, we’re not going to be part of it.’
Neither Trump nor British Prime Minister Theresa May attended the conference this year. They’re seen at WEF last year in Davos
She was referring to Satya Nadella, who met with Trump alongside other tech sectors bigwigs in December at the White House.
Ruhle invoked Arnie Sorenson and said, ‘The CEO of Marriott, whose business is already down in Washington, where they’ve got 150 hotels, down 20 percent since the government shutdown. ‘Cause if you ran a tour company in D.C. and the Smithsonian wasn’t open, you certainly wouldn’t have tourists coming.’
She said that Sorenson, the Marriott president and CEO, says he told Trump that nationalism and populism hurts the hotel industry.
Paraphrasing, she said he told the president: ‘President Trump are you sure you want to do this?’
‘And even Trump supporters and enthusiasts like Andrew Liveris, former CEO of Dow Chemical has said, listen, President Trump understood a lot of things, he was elected for the worker, but the system is broken and the worker isn’t getting served,’ she said.
‘And the biggest issue I hear all day long, is what are we going to do about the rise of nationalism, because you know, it is not unique the United States.’
She had mentioned Brazil earlier in the segment, and its new president, Jair Bolsonaro, who has been compared to Trump. Bolsonaro is in Davos for the conference.
Trump complained about media hypocrisy a half-hour later and boasted about the strength of the U.S. economy moments after that.
‘The United States has a great economic story to tell. Number one in the World, by far!’ he tweeted.
Ruhle clarified on Twitter after Trump’s rebuff that the problem, as it has been described to her, is that no U.S. officials attended the conference.
‘The criticism I am hearing from #davos delegates is NOT that @realDonaldTrump is not attending #WEF2019, It’s that there are NO members of his delegation here,’ she explained. ’60 nations with government represention & the US is not one of them’.