Analysis: Trump’s NATO hosts at the WEF might abhor him — but he’s worth listening to

Dean Acheson, the revered US diplomat, described his role as an architect of the post-World War II world in a blockbuster memoir called “Present at the Creation.”

President Donald Trump’s audience in the Swiss alpine town of Davos on Wednesday may wonder if they are present at the destruction.

Never before has a president crossed the Atlantic after threatening to seize a chunk of European sovereign territory over the wishes of its people. Trump’s Greenland power grab may already have damaged NATO, the world’s most successful military alliance, beyond repair. His antipathy for values the US used to share with Europe — like international law — risks another fracture. And US leaders rarely warm up for such trips by blasting a British prime minister for “an act of great stupidity” or dissing a French president as a lame duck.

Greenland's Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen waves a flag during a protest against Trump’s demand that the Arctic island be ceded to the US in Nuuk, Greenland, on January 17, 2026. Marko Djurica/Reuters

It’s not good manners either for a guest to mock Europe as weak, as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent did over the weekend. Or for a White House to write national security strategies that advocate replacing sitting governments with far-right extremist parties.

But Trump and his subordinates have done all this and more, in a streak of aggression fueled by their sense of unrestrained personal and national power. America’s shift has bewildered many in Europe who regarded the United States as a liberator, protector and partner.