The contrast between the new and the old could hardly have been starker.
At his Washington D.C. inauguration, new U.S. President Donald Trump galvanised his supporters by banging the drum for all of the populist policies that won him the election in November: protecting America’s borders and stopping mass illegal immigration; trashing Net Zero madness and the ‘green deal’; resisting trans activism and woke ideology; ending the political weaponisation of the law; defending free speech vs. cancel culture.
Meanwhile, across the Atlantic in the exclusive Swiss ski resort of Davos, far away from any garbage voters or deplorable citizens, leading supporters of everything that Trump spoke against huddled together for warmth at their annual elite carnival, the World Economic Forum (WEF).
Members of the old European political establishment gathered with the megarich and powerful at the WEF, seeking to reassure each other that their cosy, closed world order really isn’t coming to an end, included European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and outgoing German chancellor Olaf Scholz of the Social Democrats, alongside his likely replacement, Christian Democrat leader Friedrich Merz. All chinking glasses with the likes of UK Labour chancellor Rachel Reeves.
President Trump might have had to take cover inside the Washington Capitol Rotunda for his inauguration ceremony to escape sub-zero temperatures on the streets of DC. But in a changing world, it was the globalist elitists in snowy Davos who really seemed out in the political cold.
As I wrote on europeanconservative.com in November, Trump’s defeat of Democrat Washington insider Kamala Harris “marks a new high point in the democratic revolt against Western elites.” His remarkable return to the White House was made possible by the same populist upsurge that has swept across Europe, bringing national conservatives to power from Italy and the Netherlands to Hungary and Austria, and shaking the centre of the European Union.
The Brussels oligarchy and its media supporters have reacted by calling Trump a fascist, branding anybody who questions them ‘far-right,’ and now blaming Trumpist convert Elon Musk for allegedly corrupting European democracy by spreading ‘disinformation’ and ‘hate speech’ on X/Twitter.
Hours after President Trump’s inauguration, attended by Musk and other Big Tech titans such as Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, many left, green, and centrist Members of the European Parliament were queuing up at their plenary session in Strasbourg to denounce Musk and Meta for interfering in European elections, and to demand more online censorship.
Meanwhile, Spain’s embattled Socialist prime minister Pedro Sanchez, saying out loud what other European leaders were thinking, called on the EU to defend democracy against Musk and Trump. (Although, as with the Harry Potter villain, evil Lord Voldemort, he did not mention the new president’s name.)
Speaking for the powerful European Commission, Henna Virkkunen reassured those MEPs that Brussels will enforce even more stringent rules online, to protect Europeans from nasty words by policing speech and removing “disinformation” around the clock.
Let us be clear what is happening here. In the EU and beyond, the globalist establishment does not want or need to defend democracy against the ‘far right’ or what Sanchez called the “technocaste.” It wants to defend its own power and systems against the demos—the people—who have dared to re-elect rebel presidents and prime ministers and to express uncontrolled opinions on social media.
They do not just fear Trump and Musk. They fear people like you and me.
Trump did not create populism, and Musk has not invented freedom of speech. There is a global mass movement of normal people who have had enough of being treated with contempt, and are demanding that their voices should be heard and their interests represented.
The volatile president and his fickly eccentric online champion have certainly played an important role. Trump has proved a catalyst for that populist revolt in the U.S., and Musk has helped to provide an opening that ensures the concerns of many people in the U.S., Europe, and beyond can no longer be ignored.
But, as ever with left-liberal attacks on ‘disinformation,’ it is an insult to the electorate to suggest that they are being manipulated by Big Tech or by big-headed demagogues.
When millions of Germans turn out to vote for the anti-migration party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) next month, for instance, it will not be because Musk told them to. It will be because of the crisis in German society created by the open-door policies of the political establishment.
Musk is certainly no Nazi, however he might wave his arms around at a rally. Nor is he an unambiguous hero of democracy, with his demands that King Charles should suspend the elected UK parliament in order to get rid of Keir Starmer’s failing Labour government.
A leader such as Trump, and a figure such as Musk, are both the products and the facilitators of the populist revolt. We shall see how firmly they stick to their avowed principles in practice; President Trump did not make the best start in helping to impose the disastrous ceasefire deal on Israel, potentially letting Hamas off the hook, although he has pledged to back an Israeli offensive if the Islamists break the deal.
But whatever becomes of a Trump or a Musk or any other individual in the end, we can be sure that the mass populist revolt against the old Davos elites is not going away. The millions who have stood up and said that enough is enough are not going to be somehow turned back into obedient children.
For now, let us celebrate the populist win with those who have been partying in Washington, and ignore the miserabilism of those whose champagne has gone flat in their Davos chateaus. The future is up for grabs. But it surely does not belong to them, however hard they try to stop us saying so.
