Niall Ferguson: How Trump Won Davos

Niall Ferguson: How Trump Won DavosDonald Trump attends the signing ceremony of the Peace Charter for Gaza in Davos, Switzerland, on January 22, 2026. (Harun Ozalp/Anadolu via Getty Images)I have never before seen a single individual so completely dominate this vast bazaar of the powerful, the wealthy, the famous, and the self-important.--:----:--Upgrade to ListenProduced by ElevenLabs using AI narration1,202734DAVOS, Switzerland — This year’s World Economic Forum in Davos had an innocuous theme: “A Spirit of Dialogue.” As one European bank chief executive put it, President Donald Trump’s presence contributed something more like a spirit of monologue.That was one of the better jokes made at the president’s expense this week. And it aligns with a rapidly forming narrative in the European and liberal media that the Europeans “won Davos”: primarily by getting Trump to “de-escalate” his demand that the United States acquire Greenland from Denmark.Subscribe to Unlock This StorySupport fearless journalism and unlock all of The Free Press—your first week is on us.Annual$8.33/monthBilled as $100 yearlyMonthly$10/monthBilled as $10 monthlyAlready have an account?Sign InNiall FergusonSir Niall Ferguson, MA, DPhil, FRSE, is the Milbank Family Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and a senior faculty fellow of The Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard. He is the author of 16 books, including The Pity of War, The House of Rothschild, and Kissinger, 1923-1968: The Idealist, which won the Council on Foreign Relations Arthur Ross Book Award. He is a columnist with The Free Press. In addition, he is the founder and managing director of Greenmantle, a New York-based advisory firm, a co-founder of the Latin American fintech company Ualá, and a co-founding trustee of the new University of Austin.CommentsNo posts