Business leaders were happily surprised by President Trump’s speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, in which he urged them to invest in America and declared that his programme of tax cuts and deregulation had made the US “the place to do business”.
Dropping his incendiary language for a more moderate tone, the president largely succeeded in winning over a sceptical crowd with a speech that several said was both populist and smart. He qualified his isolationist “America First” rhetoric by adding that it “does not mean America alone”.
He also claimed that his aggressive trade policy, which this week saw punitive tariffs imposed on Chinese goods in what many are calling a trade war, was not protectionist but an attempt to “enforce trade laws and restore integrity to our trading system” after persistent rule violations by other countries. His focus on tax cuts and deregulation struck a chord with the business elite in the room, whom he flattered as the greatest “industrial titans” and “academic minds” in the world, and his redefinition of White House trade policy assuaged the worst fears.
Michael Granoff, a former Democratic speechwriter who now runs the US investment fund Pomona Capital, said: “He worked out what he wanted to say to this group and he did it effectively and he used flattery to disarm the people here who are sceptical of his motives and his policies. But we need to remember that his tweets are more important than his speeches, because those are written for him.”
Natarajan Ganapathy Subramaniam, chief operating office at India’s Tata Consulting Services, said: “He gave a good speech. After that we’d be more likely to consider investing in the US. The tax cuts, deregulation, being business-friendly — we agree with all of that. It was a good plain speech to the business community.”
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Mauricio Minas, executive vice-president of Banco Bradesco of Brazil, said: “It was a great surprise, much better than we thought. Hopefully, he will now walk the talk. I leave very optimistic that it will reinforce free trade. The most open economy in the world is America, so if others don’t comply with the rules it’s unfair.”
While an attack on the media drew hissing, Mr Trump also won laughter after he claimed not to understand why he had always had “a disproportionate amount of press”, even as a businessman.
Proceedings began with a brass band musical introduction on stage that lasted five minutes as Mr Trump and Klaus Schwab, founder of the World Economic Forum, stood awkwardly to the side. In the spillover room where another hundred people were watching, there was laughter. “Since the days of Mickey Mouse, no one has brought such laughs to the stage,” one observer said as the camera closed in on the president beside the band in Swiss regalia.