Trump Arrives in Zurich; Davos Speech Set to Start on Time
(Bloomberg) — President Donald Trump arrived in Switzerland to attend the World Economic Forum and is set to deliver his speech at its scheduled time despite his flight being delayed by a mechanical issue.
The US president will speak to global business leaders and policymakers at 2:30 p.m. local time. A WEF spokesperson said that was still the planned time even after Trump arrived at Zurich airport Wednesday following a more than two-hour flight delay. Trump was forced to return to Joint Base Andrews outside Washington after his initial departure to board a replacement plane.
Trump arrived on a smaller Boeing 757 plane typically used by the US vice president and other Cabinet members, in lieu of the 747 aircraft he initially planned to use for the transatlantic trip. Trump’s first flight from Joint Base Andrews departed at about 9:45 p.m. local time on Tuesday before returning and landing shortly after 11 p.m.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the crew discovered “a minor electrical issue” after takeoff, and added that Air Force One turned around out of an abundance of caution. On the ground, Trump and the delegation of staff traveling with him boarded a new plane and, minutes after midnight, took off again en route to Switzerland.
Trump is traveling from Zurich to the Alpine ski resort of Davos, where in addition to his address he plans to hold meetings with foreign leaders and cap the day at a reception for business leaders, according to his public schedule.
Trump, who spoke to the forum virtually in 2025, this year confronts a gathering in a state of tumult over his threats to make Greenland part of the US and his efforts to establish a “Board of Peace” for Gaza that allies worry aims to supplant the United Nations.
While the centerpiece of Trump’s trip was expected to be the Wednesday address where administration officials have said he will roll out policies to ease voter concerns about affordability, that has been overshadowed by the geopolitical crises his policies have sparked, posing NATO and the European Union with one of their starkest tests of the president’s tenure.
Trump in recent days has threatened to hit eight NATO partners, including Denmark and the UK, with tariffs over their opposition to his Greenland ambitions, leaving European leaders furious and weighing potential retaliation. Those moves have roiled markets, with US stock futures staging a tentative recovery after the S&P 500’s biggest drop in three months.
Ahead of Trump’s arrival, senior US officials have urged allies to stay calm and avoid taking action until they hear directly from the president. But officials have also had harsh words for two key allies, France and the UK, souring crucial relationships and setting the stage for a tense gathering.
Earlier: Trump Brings Greenland Fight to Davos and Calls Europe’s Bluff
Trump has his eye on holding a signing ceremony Thursday to launch the Board of Peace with invitations issued to dozens of world leaders. But that effort has been plagued by questions over its role and composition — with Russian President Vladimir Putin receiving an invite even as he wages war on neighboring Ukraine. Several allied leaders have declined so far, drawing harsh rebukes from Trump.
In addition to those flashpoints, Trump is focused on touting his economic agenda to a domestic audience ahead of elections in November to determine control of Congress. The setting for his speech, a ski resort that draws billionaires and financial leaders, offers a stage for the president to draw a sharp contrast between the elites his movement has scorned and the populist agenda that brought him to power.
The president’s speech will be focused on his “America First” agenda, according to a White House official Wednesday, but may also touch on Greenland as well as Venezuela, where Trump ousted strongman Nicolas Maduro. Trump is expected to have around five bilateral meetings with leaders, the official told reporters, without providing more details.
Trump is set to detail plans to ban institutional investors from buying single-family homes, cap credit card rates at 10% for a year and direct Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to buy $200 billion in mortgage bonds in a bid to lower lending rates. Trump signed an executive order late Tuesday that details a multi-step process aimed at limiting institutional home purchases, but stopping short of immediately implementing new rules or regulations that would restrict companies with significant housing portfolios.
Rough Start
The trip’s delay highlighted a key frustration for Trump, the aging fleet of presidential aircraft. The decades-old government planes that ferry American presidents, vice presidents, cabinet secretaries, and first ladies around the world have had several complications in recent years.
The US Air Force and Boeing Co. have also grappled with technical obstacles on a new generation of Air Force One planes, with the estimated delivery of those jets being pushed back to mid-2028.
In an unprecedented move, last year the Defense Department formally accepted a luxury Boeing 747-8 jumbo jet from Qatar to temporarily serve as the new Air Force One for Trump, raising ethics and security concerns and worries about the cost of retrofitting the plane to carry a US president.
–With assistance from Zoe Schneeweiss.
(Updates to add details on address in 12th paragraph)
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