Is the World Economic Forum compromised? (Part One)

You may feel differently, but it seems to me that the World's Economic Forum has been hijacked by Trump and that his obsessions have been the sole subject debated at that venue, falling largely outside the focus of the meeting. Has this annual economic summit become tainted and irrelevant? 

I know that I’m not the only one who wonders why global gatherings sometimes feel dominated by a single political figure or a single country’s internal drama. It’s clear that large international gatherings like the World Economic Forum, G20, COP summits, or UN assemblies are extremely sensitive to whatever or whoever dominates the global media environment. 

When a political figure like Trump generates all the headlines, provokes strong reactions, shapes geopolitical uncertainty and influences markets or alliances, their presence or absence can overshadow everything else. 

Historically, highly polarizing or unpredictable leaders have often pulled the attention to themselves, even when the official agenda was something else entirely. 

The Davos Economic Forum’s stated purpose is to address global economic trends, climate and sustainability, technological change, geopolitical stability and long‑term systemic risks. But as we’ve just seen, the media ecosystem rewards conflict, personality, drama and controversy. 

So even if the official sessions cover climate, AI governance, supply chains, or global inequality, the public conversation can become dominated by someone intent on stealing Greenland. This creates a perception gap inside the forum and outside the forum with the limelight turned on the most polarizing attendee. 

That gap can make the event feel “tainted” or “off‑mission,” even if the internal agenda hasn’t changed. Has that forum become irrelevant? Not necessarily, but its public narrative has become distorted. Tomorrow will explore the consequences of that situation and where it leave all of us.