President Trump met with European leaders in Davos,Switzerland, this week. It was an economic meeting with a broad-based agenda, including climate change and other global issues. Politics run deep, and thisis particularly true this year in light of Trump’s potential actions, ranging from the taking of Greenland to attacking and then complimenting NATO. And let’s add a diatribe against Switzerland, and in a subsequent meeting with SwissPresident Guy Parmelin, praising the Swiss for making high-quality watches. It sounded like the ultimate non-compliment compliment.

THE FULL TEXT/NOTES CAN BE FOUND AT:

https://erm76.substack.com/p/podcast-and-full-text-episode-the

The Notes for the quotes are:

(1) “The Most Startling Line From Trump’s Davos Speech,” byPhilip Elliot, Time. January 21, 2026. https://time.com/7355488/trump-davos-speech-takeaways-analysis/?itm_source=parsely-api

(2) “75th Anniversary Of The Munich Agreement,” RadioFreeEurope;RadioLiberty. September 26, 2013.

(3) “October 5, 1938. House of Commons.” Speech byWinston Churchill. International Churchill Society. https://winstonchurchill.org/resources/speeches/1930-1938-the-wilderness/the-munich-agreement/

(4) “After Trump’s Ultimatum, Greenland Talks IncludeSovereign U.S. Bases, No Drilling for Russia,” by Jim Tankersley, Lara Jakesand Adam Goldman,” The New York Times, January 22, 2026. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/22/world/europe/trump-greenland-deal-framework.html?campaign_id=60&emc=edit_na_20260122&instance_id=169697&nl=breaking-news®i_id=57657450&segment_id=214081&user_id=423e5e0514430d734c860e2b14f2b4d7

(5) “Trump Says “Sometimes You Need a Dictator” AfterAlarming Davos Speech,” by Malcolm Ferguson, The New Republic. January21, 2026. https://newrepublic.com/post/205508/trump-sometimes-you-need-dictator-davos-speech

(6) Truth Social. January 11, 2026. https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/115879509461234235

(7) Czechoslovakia had some of Europe’s biggest armsfactories.

The photo is: This photograph D 2239 (https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/search?query=D+2239) comes from the collections of the Imperial WarMuseums (https://www.iwm.org.uk).