100 DAYS: How Donald Trump Will Destroy America

DAY NINE

"The Defund Davos Act would ensure that U.S. tax dollars are not funding the World Economic Forum and their reset on our way of life."

CONGRESSMAN TOM TIFFANY (R-WI) PROMOTING THE QANON CONSPIRACY 'THE GREAT RESET'

Wednesday, January 29th 2025

First to issue a statement on the previous day's orders are the National Farmers Union. They come out strongly opposed to order 14169, saying it is vital for American agriculture to be allowed to use seasonal workers from other countries. In response the White House repeats its dogma, "American jobs for American workers," despite the knowledge that Americans won't fill the gaps left by migrant workers.

Similar denunciations to the cancelling of DACA – particularly with no promise of a replacement – to the previous time the Trump administration tried it are, like last time, reported by The New York Times. Democrats, CEOs, university presidents and immigration advocates condemn the rescission as, "coldhearted and shortsighted," which could harm the economy. (According to economists Giovanni Peri (UC, Davis), Kevin Shih (RPI) and Chad Sparber (Colgate University) inflows of foreign STEM [science, technology, engineering and math] workers explain between 30% and 50% of the aggregate productivity growth that took place in the United States between 1990 and 2010.

Trump flies to Davos, Switzerland for the World Economic Forum (WEF). His actions since taking power drop him into a firestorm. Heads of state, business leaders and others seek to meet the president to talk about his policies. Volodymyr Zelenskyy has flown in specially to speak to the president about his withdrawal of support for Ukraine – but is kept at arm's length. Despite this it's the ban on Chinese students that dominates. Trump meets with Minister for Foreign Affairs of China, Wang Yi, before a speech to attendees later.

In a repeat of his meeting with Vladimir Putin in 2018, Trump opts to meet Wang alone with just translators – despite the fact that Wang speaks fluent English. They emerge after an hour for a brief joint press conference. Trump says he and Wang had a frank and honest discussion and "we disagreed about some things... big things, small things... We both want the best for our countries. We love our countries. Some unfair things I think, but we'll come back to those. Lots of talking still to do..." Then he says he has had a rethink on previous day's executive order regarding students from China. He now believes that it was a mistake and that both American students studying in China and Chinese students studying in America are a vital part of "our two great countries understanding of each other."

Speculation afterward is that Trump specifically introduced the ban on Chinese students ahead of his meeting with Wang in order to extract concessions on some of the trade policies he objects to, in particular their disregard for intellectual property rights and tariffs on American-made goods. What Trump may have got out of the meeting is not announced and he bats away questions afterward regarding any concessions he may have won.

The more cynical believe that Wang requested the meeting be one-on-one and that Trump, overestimating his savviness, allowed himself to be played by the more experienced politician, who Chinese media have dubbed the 'Silver Fox' for his grey hair and wiliness in negotiations.

Trump's speech is in the same vein as those given at his previous visits to the conference. He begins by praising his own achievement in his previous term – and how Biden undid much of his work – and in his first week in power. He continues complimenting himself by claiming he's the best president for business, for industry, for workers, that his country has ever seen; not satisfied with that he goes further, saying, "the best the world has probably ever seen." Trump bangs his drum about what a bad deal the U.S. is getting from countries around the world and how he's going to fix that. He attacks climate change "extremists" saying that in the five years since he was last in Davos nothing has happened, nothing has changed, "their apocalypse hasn't arrived, and won't arrive, because they're still 'foolish fortune tellers,'" he says, referring to himself during his last address at the WEF. Then the president brings up wind farms – one of his stranger obsessions – repeating that they drive whales crazy, that they're massacring millions of birds and also people, "people are getting sick," and he urges the audience to look it up. He's so sure that climate change is a "hoax" that he announces a commitment to building ten new coal-fired power stations in the next five years. "That's right folks, we're going to bring back that beautiful coal that made our country great. And it'll be the cleanest coal. Even Greta will love it!" referring to environmental activist Greta Thunberg, with whom he clashed at Davos previously. (Trump said that coal was back during his first term, but by 2020 when he left office jobs in the coal industry were down by 24%. There's no such thing as "clean coal.") But the president doesn't stop there. "We've got the greatest land, so much, and it's just sitting there waiting to be drilled, mined and fracked." This is all, he explains, to fulfil the plan of complete energy independence for the U.S. so they're not, "beholden to others, taking advantage of America." Trump claims lots of people will try and stop him, but that he just wants "the lowest bills, gas prices, everything." He accuses the United Nations of trying to cheat the American people from these things, and because of that he is "announcing that the United States is withdrawing from the Paris Climate Accords again. It's a bad deal for America, so unfair. In fact it's a bad deal for the world." He adds, rather surprisingly since he has just met the Chinese foreign ministers that Paris was essentially engineered for China and that – in the exact words from Agenda 47 – "China signs up for every stupid globalist climate deal, and then immediately breaks it. They don't live up their deals." Some of the Chinese delegation walk out in protest. Trump says, we keep to our deals "we don't have to, but we do... Can you imagine if we didn't? Such a hard time we'd get..." He continues by saying that even outside the Paris agreement the U.S. is still set to become the "cleanest" nation on earth – a false claim Trump made the first time he withdrew the country from the Paris Accords – and would make the climate great again, aping his favourite phrase.

As Trump flies out, a sombre mood takes hold in Davos.

Trump posts to Truth Social from Air Force One. Many of his posts are familiar complaints about Chinese inequitable trade policy – ignoring intellectual property rights, buying up American farmland, technology, ports, natural resources, etc. – and how he's going to offer them, "the best deal in history," which, "they better accept, or it's HUGE TARIFFS! 100, 200, 1000% even!!"