The World Economic Forum is rarely short on big speeches, but this week it had something better: a big contrast. 

On Wednesday, US President Donald Trump turned Davos into something of a political spectacle — complete with long lines, loud reactions, and visible discomfort among the global elite.

The day before, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney delivered a sober warning about a world in strategic upheaval. 

Carney’s appearance was calm, measured and, by Davos standards, reassuringly serious. He told the political and financial leaders that the old US-led global system was not merely evolving but it was breaking apart.

“We are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition,” he said, describing a world of “intensifying great power rivalry” and a “fading” rules-based order. 

While he did not mention Trump by name, the target of his analysis was clear: the return of a major-power style of politics, driven less by shared rules and more by raw leverage.

Carney noted that countries like Canada benefited from the previous international framework and from what he called “American hegemony,” which helped provide “public goods” such as open sea lanes, a stable financial system, and collective security. 

Mood changes

That era, he implied, was slipping away. Carney’s sharpest message was directed at “middle powers” — countries like Canada that are not superpowers but still have influence.

“Middle powers must act together, because if we’re not at the table, we’re on the menu,” he said, warning that “compliance will buy safety” is no longer a workable strategy. 

The line landed well, and his speech was widely described as stirring, even among delegates worried about the direction of global politics.

Then came Trump — and the mood quickly changed.

His speech on Wednesday was the most anticipated of the forum, attracting huge crowds and long lines. During the two-hour wait to get in, one attendee compared the atmosphere to a “rock festival.” 

The congress hall filled, doors closed, and hundreds scrambled into overflow rooms to watch the speech on screens. Even Latvia’s President Edgars Rinkevics was stuck in line at one point before an aide guided him elsewhere.

Rinkevics later remarked that no other speaker drew that level of attention.

But attention did not translate to admiration. Trump’s speech triggered laughter, gasps, and sharp reactions. 

Bird kill

In an overflow room, attendees mockingly laughed when he claimed wind farms killed birds. Nervous laughter followed when he said he was asking for “a piece of ice,” referring to Greenland. 

There were stunned reactions when he briefly referred to Greenland as “Iceland,” prompting people to turn to each other for confirmation.

Trump revived a familiar theme — that Canada’s survival depended on the United States — saying “Canada lives because of the United States,” while accusing Carney of being ungrateful. 

Some delegates reacted with disbelief. Others looked increasingly irritated.

When Trump mocked French President Emmanuel Macron for wearing sunglasses — due to a burst blood vessel — there were howls of laughter in some sections. 

Yet by the one-hour mark, some attendees began leaving the overflow rooms. One delegate muttered, “He’s a nutcase,” on the way out.

Reactions outside the hall were split.

Sweden’s Energy Minister Ebba Busch rejected Trump’s approach: “We’re in the business of democracy, we’re not in the business of merger and acquisitions,” she said. “We will not be blackmailed.”

An American medical technology executive said Trump usually “knows how to read a room,” but questioned whether he managed it this time. “One guy I saw get up and leave, he was visibly shaking with anger,” he said.