• Mocks Europe, seeks NATO’s support to take Greenland
• Nigeria seeks stronger voice with new deal room
• Economic outlook is getting brighter, says Oduwole

Since assuming office, President Donald Trump has shunned the traditional engagement rules – bullied some to submission and tariffed the majority of the global community to accept his “America First” economic view (a philosophy that is changing the world economic order as it is known).

The ongoing World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, seems to have presented him one more opportunity to bully, mock and ridicule his peers and the countries they represent.

The speech that followed his dramatic appearance yesterday made a full impression on the style of engagement of the most powerful global leader.

Much of his speech was half-truths, on the United States, the world cannot do without and how the fate of every other mortal in the world is tied to the well-being or otherwise of the superpower. His appeals, in a few cases, were nothing short of subtle threats.

“We probably won’t get anything unless I decide to use excessive strength and force, where we would be frankly unstoppable, but I won’t do that. I don’t have to use force. I don’t want to use force. I won’t use force,” he told the bewildered global leaders as he appealed to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO).

Greenland, an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark, has become a theatre of power talks. Ahead of the WEF, European countries, including the United Kingdom, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Finland, sent what was described as small contingents of troops to the island to protect it against a Trump invasion.

The U.S. President has indicated interest in taking over the control of the territory, insisting that Denmark cannot protect it against Russia and China.

Trump has, however, reversed course and abandoned plans to impose tariffs on a group of close U.S. allies that had objected to his push to acquire Greenland after what he described as a “very productive” meeting with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte.

Writing on Truth Social, Trump said American and NATO representatives had “formed the framework of a future deal with respect to Greenland and, in fact, the entire Arctic Region” based on discussions held in the closed-door meeting at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. He said the “solution” will be a great one for the United States of America, and all NATO Nations” if it is “consummated.”

“I have done more for NATO than any other person since its founding, and now, NATO should do something for the United States. The World is not secure unless we have Complete and Total Control of Greenland,” Trump wrote to Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store.

As expected, his Greenland gambit has become a major talking point at Davos, even as tension continues to grow about the near-future fate of the territory and what a U.S. ‘colonialisation’ could mean for the emerging global politics.

Any hope that Trump could de-escalate the tension yesterday was dashed as he subtly threatened NATO that nobody can stop the U.S. posturing.

This year’s WEF coincides with the first anniversary of Trump’s second coming. While he spoke at Davos, the Internet was agog with the new world Trump has built and messages of goodwill.

There were also caricatures of how much his style of engagement has turned some leaders in Europe and elsewhere into yeomen. Trump would have had to do the construction when he depicted some of the European leaders as nonentities.

“Friends come back from different places. I don’t want to insult anybody and say I don’t recognise it. And that’s not in a positive way. That’s in a very negative way,” he said. He added that “certain places in Europe are not even recognisable anymore” in a statement that may have interpreted as targeting the European Union (EU), supposedly a major ally of the U.S.

Back home, the speech has drawn the ire of his critics. Leader of the House of Democrats, Hakeem Jeffries, reportedly posted on X: “Trump is embarrassing America on the world stage, again.”

A senator and democrat, Dick Durbin, called out the President, saying he lacked “humility and truth”.
“Our best allies are fed up with his threats and boasts. Our nation will pay a heavy price for one man’s ego,” Durbin noted.

While the U.S. decimates other economies with tariff crisis while exploring visa blockade, Trump claimed he was ready to discuss how his administration has achieved “economic miracle” and is raising the living standards of Americans to levels never seen before, to enable other leaders to learn some lessons to improve their countries. And he had a word for leaders who have continued to pretend in the face of a troubled global community.

“Quite frankly, many parts of our world are being destroyed before our very eyes. And the leaders don’t even understand what’s happening. And the ones that do understand aren’t doing anything about it,” he submitted.

Trump’s speech may have significantly altered the tone of the discussion for the rest of WEF, a forum that previously built its deliberations on mutual respect and his resolutions on consensus. In pushing other leaders to the defence, the meetings have become theatres of hard politics, tough speeches and counter-attacks for the rest of the week.

THE Nigerian delegation, a country whose leaders have also been accused of falling short of courageous governance, may also need to choose their responses and style of delivering their messages as the forum progresses. Speaking with CNN yesterday, the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr Jumoke Oduwole, claimed it is no longer where it used to be.

She said the economy was showing strong signs of recovery, with growth above four per cent, inflation decelerating and interest from local and foreign investors rising.

Oduwole claims the country’s economic reforms, investment drive and global partnerships were reshaping Nigeria’s outlook and attracting fresh capital.

Both the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have projected the country’s economy to expand by 4.4 per cent this year, relatively higher than the recent historical trend but lower than President Bola Tinubu’s targeted seven per cent growth.

Oduwole described the Nigeria House debut this year as a platform to showcase the country’s reform story, investment opportunities and trade priorities to global investors and policymakers.

She played up the planned national single window (NSW) project as one of the initiatives that would even boost the country’s growth prospects.

Despite the not-too-friendly relationship between the U.S. and Nigeria, Oduwole insisted: “The U.S. remains our strong strategic partner. We launched a commercial investment partnership in June last year. U.S. businesses work very closely with Nigerian businesses.”