U.S. President Donald Trump attends the 56th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, January 21, 2026.
Denis Balibouse | Reuters
American President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that parts of Europe are no longer recognizable – and that the continent is “not going in the right direction”.
Trump hailed what he described as economic growth “like no country has ever seen before” in the United States during his highly anticipated speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
“Friends come back from different places — I don’t want to insult anyone — and say, I don’t recognize him. And it’s not in a positive way, it’s in a very negative way,” Trump said.
“I love Europe and I want it to do well, but it is not going in the right direction.”
His speech comes after world leaders condemned his aggressive approach to annexing Greenland, which he said he would seek to negotiate on “immediately”.
Market players and many US allies have sounded the alarm about its position in Greenland, notably in Davos.
Trump, who has long campaigned for the Arctic island to become part of the United States, has already insistent there is “no turning back” on its acquisition in Denmark. He has threatened to impose a growing wave of tariffs on eight European countries if they continue to oppose his plans.
The US president’s increasingly aggressive rhetoric on Greenland has exacerbated transatlantic tensions, with French President Emmanuel Macron warning of a transition to “a world without rules” and denouncing “bullies” without mentioning Trump by name.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said in Davos on Tuesday that “the old order will not return” and warned that “nostalgia is not a strategy.”
Carney said the new order was “a system of intensifying great power rivalry in which the most powerful pursue their interests using economic integration as coercion.”
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