Tenacious Swiss Leader Stood Up to Trump — It Backfired on Her

(Bloomberg) — Karin Keller-Sutter admires the grit of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and as Swiss president is known as technocratic and tenacious. Those traits look to have backfired when she faced off with Donald Trump and led her country into crisis.

KKS — as she is known in Swiss politics — has had the worst week of her more than three-decade career. It’s even worse than in 2023, when over a frantic weekend she pushed through Credit Suisse’s forced marriage to UBS Group AG to limit the fallout on the country’s prized banking sector.

With Trump levying the highest tariffs in the developed world on Switzerland at 39% — more than double the European Union’s rate — there’s little relief in sight.

After the 61-year-old came home empty-handed from a last-ditch trip to Washington, the Swiss government had few answers after an emergency meeting of the seven-member federal council on Thursday, saying it would continue to seek to secure concessions.

While the country’s leadership is a shared responsibility — the presidency rotates every year among the members of the cabinet — the tariff debacle bears Keller-Sutter’s fingerprints.

When asked about her leadership role models during a Bloomberg interview last fall, the politician, who is also finance minister, noted her admiration for Thatcher, saying that the so-called Iron Lady was “quite a person” and showed she can “stick to her convictions and decisions.”

Similar determination led her to stand up to Trump. It looked like it might pan out, with Swiss negotiators thinking they had a deal in sight, but then came a bumpy call last week.

In what was described as a lecturing tone, she dismissed the notion that Switzerland was stealing from the US and insisted on including services in the discussions. That ran afoul of Trump’s focus on the US deficit in goods from exports such as luxury watches, gold and pharmaceuticals.

Her position was that Switzerland stands by its word and it was better to have no deal than a bad deal. But that didn’t go down well with the White House, and Switzerland didn’t have the leverage of bigger trading partners and put little on the table.

The paradox faced by Keller-Sutter is that any concessions would have been politically costly without meaningfully curbing the trade gap. But appearance counts and she didn’t give Trump anything he could pass off as a deal. In an interview with CNBC, he said the Swiss president didn’t want to listen.

In a press conference in the Swiss capital of Bern on Thursday, she pushed back and again dismissed the characterization of Switzerland causing losses for the US.

“I have listened,” she said. “But I didn’t agree that Switzerland is responsible for a loss of $40 billion,” adding that “I have represented Switzerland’s interests.”

Her approach is steeped in Swiss pragmatism. Born in a small village about 60 kilometers (40 miles) east of Zurich, her political career started in 1992 as a local council member of the municipality of Wil.

A member of the pro-business liberals, she steadily rose through the ranks. She finally succeeded in becoming a federal minister in 2018, leading the ministry of justice before becoming Switzerland’s top financial official in 2023 — only the second woman to hold the post since 1848.

A few months into the job, she faced one of the darkest hours for Switzerland. Despite having no banking experience, the trained translator oversaw negotiations between UBS, the Swiss National Bank and country’s financial regulator to contain the damage from Credit Suisse’s collapse.

“I had the impression that the world was holding its breath until we had a solution,” she said in interview with public broadcaster SRF in March 2024.

With the international community roiled by Trump’s trade wars, no one is waiting for Switzerland this time.

The crisis poses a unique challenge for the country of 9 million by raising questions about the viability of its tradition of neutrality in the midst of geopolitical upheaval. Recent episodes, including the Credit Suisse demise and an upcoming plebiscite about inheritance tax, have also undermined Switzerland’s image as one of the business-friendliest places on the planet.

In the aftermath of the Credit Suisse failure, Keller-Sutter became a driving force behind stricter capital requirements for UBS. Maneuvering out of a political corner, she deferred a decision to parliament on whether the Swiss bank would need to provided full backing of its foreign subsidiaries. The capital move led to a falling out with UBS.

After the failed Trump talks, Keller-Sutter faces pressure again. While she’s known as being skeptical of having tight relations with the EU, opponents are pushing for exactly that.

Despite stumbling, her resignation is seen as unlikely. The rotating Swiss presidency means change will come soon in any case, which makes sudden departures rare. She isn’t facing serious rivals within her own party, which needs her profile amid fading support. There also is little pressure from other cabinet members.

“We win together and we lose together,” said Swiss Vice President Guy Parmelin, when asked if she deserved the blame. The federal council speaks with one voice, he added.

Keller-Sutter also isn’t easily intimidated. After clamping down against violence in soccer as justice minister, she once demanded that a hooligan delete a photo he took of her. That fighting spirit recalls another one of her personal heroes.

“I’m a great fan of Muhammad Ali,” she said. “He’s an idol because he was very talented, he was very strong, he went through very difficult situations.”

–With assistance from Bastian Benrath-Wright.

©2025 Bloomberg L.P.