Donald Trump has visited, spoken at and now left the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, where he gave a bullish talk on the US economy and lashed out at his Senate impeachment trial back in Washington.
He also gently sparred back and forth with 17-year-old activist Greta Thunberg, as the pair laid out their diametrically-opposed visions of the the future of the planet.
Here are five takeaways from the president’s trip.
Trump would like to meet Thunberg, apparently
Just before he departed the slopes of Davos, Trump had some final words for Thunberg, saying he would have loved to have seen her speak at the World Economic Forum.
And showing that he is most certainly not bitter or jealous of the teenager, he said she had “beat me out on Time Magazine”, a reference to her being Time’s Person of the Year.
But he’s still not on the same page as her
Not one bit.
His cheery and definitely not bitter remarks on Wednesday were in stark contrast to just one day earlier when he dismissed “perennial prophets of doom” on climate change in his keynote address, while Thunberg sat in the audience.
He also snubbed their “predictions of the apocalypse” in favour of “optimism” for the future.
Thunberg may have outshone the president by quite a bit
Thunberg, who has been treated as a star in the Swiss ski resort, addressed a packed auditorium less than an hour after Trump’s speech on Wednesday, during which he was most certainly not bitter or jealous.
She introduced a talk on “Averting a Climate Apocalypse”, in which she scolded the elites for not doing enough to deal with the climate crisis.
“Our house is still on fire,” Thunberg said, repeating her warning at the WEF meeting a year ago. “Your inaction is fuelling the flames.”
Trump is being impeached and he wants everyone to know what he thinks
Trump, who is definitely not bitter about being impeached, called a surprise news conference Wednesday to mark a “tremendous two days” at the glitzy summit of world leaders and financiers in Davos, which has served as a respite from the trial underway in Washington.
“It’s such a hoax,” Trump said non-bitterly of the impeachment case against him (not climate change, which he has also previously said is a hoax).
“I think it’s so bad for our country.”
Greta and Charles get along just fine
Prince Charles also made an appearance at Davos and even had some time for a little photo op with Thunberg.
The pair are absolutely on the same page, with Charles even echoing the teenage activist during a speech he gave on Wednesday.
He said global warming and climate change are the greatest threats humanity has faced, calling on business leaders to act now to create a sustainable economic future, adding it was time for everyone in a leadership role to take action “at revolutionary levels and pace”.
“We are in the midst of a crisis that is now, I hope, well understood,” he said. “Global warming, climate change, the devastating loss of biodiversity are the greatest threats that humanity has ever faced and one largely of our own creation.”