Newsom Stunned By World Leaders’ Support For Trump at Davos

Newsom Stunned by World Leaders’ Support for Trump at Davos

The annual World Economic Forum in Davos has long been viewed as a bastion of global liberal consensus — a place where technocrats, multinational CEOs, and political leaders converge around shared assumptions about globalization, climate policy, and liberal democratic norms. For years, Donald Trump was treated there as an anomaly at best and a cautionary tale at worst.

That is why reports emerging from Davos this year caught many observers off guard — including California Governor Gavin Newsom, one of the Democratic Party’s most prominent national figures. According to accounts from attendees and diplomats, Newsom was privately and publicly stunned by the openness with which several world leaders and global business figures expressed support — or at least renewed respect — for Donald Trump and his political movement.

What happened in Davos wasn’t a coronation. But it was something arguably more significant: a normalization of Trump among elites who once treated him as an aberration. And that shift carries serious implications for U.S. politics, global alliances, and the Democratic Party’s assumptions about international opinion.

Davos: A Stage for Global Consensus

To understand why this moment matters, it helps to understand what Davos represents.

For decades, the World Economic Forum has served as a symbolic nerve center of globalism — a place where leaders discuss climate targets, trade harmonization, digital governance, and multilateral cooperation. While ideological diversity exists, Davos has traditionally leaned toward:

Pro-globalization economic policies

Climate activism and net-zero frameworks

Technocratic governance

Skepticism of nationalist movements

Donald Trump’s presidency ran counter to many of these themes. His “America First” rhetoric, withdrawal from international agreements, skepticism of global institutions, and blunt transactional diplomacy were widely criticized in Davos circles.

In past years, Trump was often referenced as a warning — a populist disruptor who threatened the post-Cold War international order.

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