Davos live: Trump to address world leaders amid Greenland standoff after ‘minor electrical issue’ on Air Force One

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Scott Bessent then blasts California’s governor, Gavin Newsom.

Asked about Newsom’s claim yesterday that he was a “smug man”, Bessent shoots back that the governor may be “the only Californian who knows less about economics than Kamala Harris”.

Bessent says Newsom is here in Davos this week with his “billionaire sugar daddy” Alex Soros, accusing him of “hobnobbing” with the global elite while California has the largest homeless population in America.

Bessent: UK letting us down over Diego Garcia

Q: Are you going to start a trade war with Europe, and is it worth risking the US economy for Greenland?

Scott Bessent says he’s “not sure” what message the eight European countries who chose to send troops to Greenland were sending.

President Trump has made it clear that the US will not outsource its national security, he adds.

And he accuses “our partner, the UK”, of “letting us down with the base on Diego Garcia” by turning it over to Mauritius.

Bessent says everyone should “take a deep breath”, sit down and wait for Trump to get to Davos, and listen to his argument.

I think they’re going to be persuaded.

Taking questions, Bessent suggests it would be “very disappointing” if Switzerland started to emulate the EU policies of “administration, bureaucracy, and economic sclerosis”.

Bessent: "Grow, baby, grow"

US Treasury secretary Scott Bessent is holding a press briefing here in Davos, at the US House (in a church just outside the WEF congress centre).

Bessent begins by welcome us to “day one, year two” of the Trump administration, before outlining how the US government is pushing through a rebalancing of international trade – which he says was “long overdue”.

Bessent outlines how the US international trade deficit is narrowing at “an unprecedented pace”, with October’s trade data showing the trade deficit fell to its lowest level since 2009.

He’s arguing that the world is safer and more prosperous when America is strong.

And he coins the term “grow baby, grow”, outlining how growth is the only path out of the amount of debt built up in the global economy, adding:

We can only grow together by expanding trade.

UK inflation rises for first time in five months

Back in the UK, inflation has risen for the first time since last July.

The consumer prices index has risen to 3.4% in December, new data shows, up from 3.2% in November, showing an acceleration in annual inflation.

Price rose by 0.4% in December alone, the Office for National Statistics reports.

Alcohol and tobacco, and transport made the largest upward contributions to the monthly change in inflation.

The Financial Times are reorting that senior executives at the WEF are weighing whether the organisation’s flagship annual meeting needs to change location, fearing the event has outgrown its traditional Alpine venue in Davos.

Alternative venues, which could rotate, being discussed include Detroit and Dublin, they say.

More here.

Attendees have been suggesting for several years that Davos – a small ski resort – wasn’t big enough to accommodate thousands of WEF visitors each year.

The traffic on the promenade – the main road through the centre of the town – has been bumper-to-bumper at times this week, with most of the shops converted into venues for big businesses or countries.

Pedestrians and traffic in downtown Davis on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting yesterday. Photograph: Ina Fassbender/AFP/Getty Images

But, Davos’s isolation and small size does make it easier to implement WEF’s tough security measures….

Trump back in the air and heading to Davos

President Trump is in the air again and headed to Davos, CNN report.

A new aircraft began rolling down the tarmac at 12:02 a.m., according to the White House press pool.

They add:

The crew on the plane was hustling to make the transition, quickly moving boxes of fruit, wrapped sandwiches and beverages in and out. Others, outside on the ground, were seen pulling about a dozen suitcases off the plane and placing them onto a truck.

Trump’s Air Force One turns back to Washington after ‘minor electrical issue’

The US president’s trip to Davos got off to a bad start.

Donald Trump’s plane, Air Force One, was forced to abort its flight to Switzerland on Tuesday and turn back after what officials described as a “minor electrical issue”.

Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said the decision to return to Washington DC had been taken shortly after departure “out of an abundance of caution”, once the crew detected the fault.

A White House pool reporter travelling with the president said the lights in the press cabin of Air Force One flickered off briefly after the aircraft became airborne, though no further explanation was provided at the time.

On landing, Trump was expected to transfer to a second plane and continue his trip to the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Introduction: Trump due in Davos today

Good morning from Davos, where Donald Trump is heading for a showdown with fellow world leaders over his designs on Greenland.

The US president has top billing at the World Economic Forum today, scheduled to give a special address in the early afternoon (2.30pm Davos time, 1.30pm GMT or 8.30am EST).

Up until last weekend, Trump was expected to use this speech to outline his affordability agenda, including new policies to lower housing costs.

But the speech is now expected to have a much more international flavour, following Trump’s threat to impose tariffs on European countries who oppose him buying, or even seizing, Greenland.

Last night, Trump claimed again that the US needs Greenland for national security purposes. When asked how far he is willing to go to acquire Greenland, he simply replied “You’ll find out.”

Yesterday, European leaders were bracing for the arrival of the US president today.

France’s Emmanuel Macron warned that the world is facing “a shift toward autocracy against democracy … a shift towards a world without rules where international law is trampled underfoot, where the only law seems to be the strongest and imperial ambitions are resurfacing”.

Canada’s Mark Carney was even blunter, saying the “old order is not coming back” and that the world is “in the midst of a rupture, not a transition”, as great powers flex their muscles.

California’s Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, summed things up best:

“There’s no diplomacy with Donald Trump: he’s a T rex. You mate with him or he devours you.”

We’ll also hear from Trump ally, Argentina’s Javier Milei today, as well as Egypt’s president Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, and Mohammad Mustafa, Prime Minister of the Palestinian National Authority, plus other big names from business and technology.

The agenda

• 8am Davos / 7am GMT: Scott Bessent to hold press conference on trade matters

• 9am Davos /8am GMT: Session: Can Russia Sustain a Wartime Economy?

• 9.30am Davos / 8.30am GMT: Special Address by Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, President of Egypt

• 10.15am Davos / 9.15am GMT: Session: Can Europe Defend Itself?

• 11.30am Davos / 10.30am GMT: Conversation with Jensen Huang, President and CEO of NVIDIA

• 1pm Davos / noon GMT: Conversation with Jamie Dimon, Chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase

• 1.30pm Davos / 12.30pm GMT: Conversation with Mohammad Mustafa, Prime Minister of the Palestinian National Authority

• 2.30pm Davos / 1.30pm GMT: Special Address by Donald J. Trump, President of the United States of America

• 3.45pm Davos / 2.45pm GMT: Special Address by Javier Milei, President of Argentina