DAVOS, Switzerland — Donald Trump’s first week in office was a whirlwind: executive orders on everything from closing the border to ending federal Diversity, Equity and Inclusion mandates.
Social media postings announced new business initiatives and put world leaders on notice that a new sheriff is in town.
Heads were spinning among the business and political elites, both back home and here at the World Economic Forum, the annual confab of the globalist crowd where I’ve been hanging for the past few days.
That’s because the decidedly non-globalist Trump, people here truly believe, could be on the verge of solving maybe the most intractable problem the world faces: The nearly three-year armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
Until now, it showed no signs of ending and even threatened nuclear war.
Yet after a few well-timed comments from The Donald about how his alleged man-crush Vladimir Putin needs to get to the negotiating table, there’s fresh optimism that the conflict will end and war-ravaged Ukraine could once again start receiving flows of private capital brokered by the big banks.
Recall, it was around this time about a year ago when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky began wooing investors for redevelopment money.
Ukraine has an educated population where English is almost a second language and a resilient people as evidenced by how its smallish army has repelled the Russian war machine.
What’s not to like if you’re looking to rebuild the country and want a return on capital?
Well for starters, the continued conflict with Russia is a no-go for private money; you don’t risk capital while the missiles are still flying.
Zelensky was told as much last year in Davos, and just days ago when he arrived here to press the flesh.
Offer Vlad can’t refuse
But there’s a difference this time around in Davos, my reporting indicates, and it’s summed up perfectly by a foreign diplomat at the popular Ukrainian breakfast I attended at the invitation of Ukrainian businessman Victor Pinchuk.
The diplomat reminded the audience that a “rainmaker” named Donald Trump is now in charge of the world’s leading superpower and he’s looking to make an offer that Putin can’t refuse to end the war.
As in the US, even the global elite knows the world got a huge upgrade in Trump over sleepy Joe Biden.
Yes, Biden threw billions of dollars into Ukraine’s war effort but much of the most needed war material came in fits and spurts; he never made the case to the American people as to why Ukraine is important to US global interests.
He ignored massive domestic problems, i.e. inflation, the border, and crime, which undermined his case for Ukraine aid.
Trump is at bottom a pragmatist and he’s ready to wield American power in a smart way when it advances our interests.
There’s a backlash now — Americans want to fix the home front first.
Trump put a 90-day freeze on all foreign aid, which includes Ukraine.
Yet here’s why there’s hope for the future of Ukraine, at least according to the bankers and diplomats following this saga: The rainmaker wants a deal to end the war and fast; he said as much in no uncertain terms during the confab, one of the event’s major highlights.
Dealing with the despot
Trump isn’t the Putin lackey the left spins to its media sources.
People in Davos reminded me that during Trump I, he supplied Ukraine with deadly Javelin missiles after Obama refused.
He’s also been briefed on the brutality of this war, understands the treachery of Putin, and the strategic importance of Ukraine in Europe with its strong military and bounty of natural resources, I am told.
Trump during his first term got along with Putin, but that’s how he does business even with despots.
I’ve been covering him for years as a real estate developer and now in national politics, and let’s just say Trump likes you until he doesn’t.
More than anything, Trump hates being outmaneuvered by anyone, Putin included.
And now he’s telling Putin to get to the negotiating table to stop this thing or else.
The “or else” might be something other than weapons, like real economic sanctions with teeth.
Ramping up oil production might depress prices enough to put Russia’s oil-dependent economy into further economic despair; tariffs on Russian goods and additional sanctions could send the Russian economy into a full-scale meltdown, as Trump reminded his pal in a recent social media post.
Here in Davos, I both attended and moderated sessions at a private confab hosted by Pinchuk; I was struck by how Ukrainians and even globalist bankers embraced Trump’s overall message including his position that there are limits to American aid.
The Europeans need to step up in ways they so far haven’t to prevent a broader conflict on their soil.
Putin is of course a treacherous man, but in dealmaking with Trump, he’s playing in the big leagues.
Yes, he has nukes, but so do we, as Trump has reminded him.
If there is a solid peace deal, and people here are increasingly confident that with Trump there will be, the bloodshed will stop and the private money will start flowing.
Ukraine and the world can then thank the ultimate rainmaker, Donald Trump.
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