Why Trump’s Davos farce may come to be seen as a watershed

In a week marked by the first anniversary of Donald Trump’s second inauguration as US president and a Davos-based melodrama over his ambitions to own Greenland, it is perhaps timely to review this first year of Trump 2.0 and look into the second.First, one has to be in awe of the frenetic energy of Trump, who celebrates his 80th birthday in June. Whatever one makes of his meandering, insulting, overbearing and frequently inaccurate address in Davos, made right off his flights from Washington, one cannot but be impressed by his stamina and passion. This is a leader old enough to be thinking daily about his legacy, and driven by the limited time to achieve it.While 2026 has so far seen Trump focus almost entirely on foreign policy and the international stage – first with gunboat diplomacy, taking effective control of Venezuela, then demanding sovereignty over the 57,000 people of Greenland – it is important to remember Trump’s overriding mission is domestic: making America great again (Maga).Whatever the potentially grave ramifications, it often feels as if these forays are designed to divert and distract adversaries and the media from controversies that might jeopardise his radical domestic agenda.Look how he has deflected attention away from potential embarrassments, including the Epstein files, dismissal of over 300,000 federal employees, closing of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and Department of Education, deployment of troops to Democrat-led cities in his witch hunt against illegal immigration and an expected Supreme Court ruling over the legality of his “Liberation Day” tariffs, which have generated an estimated US$287 billion in federal revenues.Look also at his extraordinary use of 230 executive orders over the past year to bypass and undermine powers previously thought to rest with the Senate and House of Representatives to make war, levy taxes and regulate commerce. Many claim this amounts to presidential overreach, but who knows how long it will take for the country’s judicial system, itself under assault, to restore powers to where they belong.US Fed chief threatened with criminal indictment by Trump administrationUS Fed chief threatened with criminal indictment by Trump administration