Liberals Are ‘Hyperventilating’ Over Trump’s Warm Reception in Davos

Global elitists gathered Friday at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland gave a warm reception to President Donald Trump, and liberals could not be more tied in knots about it, according to an economist who helped develop the chief executive’s tax cut plan.

Stephen Moore, who advised Trump on economic issues during the 2016 presidential campaign, said on “The Laura Ingraham Show” that American progressives are counting on Europeans’ remaining hostile to the president.

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“Liberals are hyperventilating now because Trump is becoming normalized in a way that terrifies them,” he said.

Moore said Trump’s reception in Davos, Switzerland, could not have been a starker contrast with last year’s. He said that Europe’s leaders and business titans could not have had more negative expectations for the “America First” populist as he began his presidency a year ago.

“I was there in Switzerland last year, exactly a year ago,” he said. “And the difference between what these Europeans are saying today when they were saying — literally, they believed that this new president, Donald Trump, was going to be another Adolf Hitler. He was going to destroy the world economy. He was the most dangerous man on the planet.”

Moore said the better reception comes not from Trump’s rhetoric but the results he has achieved — declining unemployment and faster economic growth.

“He went over there. He charmed them,” he said. “Of course, nothing succeeds like success. I mean, he just talked about his record, what he’s done.”

During the speech, Trump sought to assure the global elite that he does not want to blow up the entire world economic system. “‘America First’ is not America alone,” he said.

Trump said the United States remains committed to trade — but on its terms.

Related: America Is ‘Open for Business,’ Trump Tells Global Leaders

“We cannot have free and open trade if some countries exploit the system at the expense of others,” he said. “We support free trade, but it needs to be fair and it needs to be reciprocal, because in the end, unfair trade undermines us all. The United States will no longer turn a blind eye to unfair economic practices.”

Moore said Trump was spot-on. He said it is not necessary to be a trade protectionist to recognize that China, for instance, has cheated and stolen from its trade partners on a massive scale.

“I may be a little bit more of a free trader than you are, Laura, but I agreed almost entirely with what Donald Trump said,” he said.

Added Moore, “I don’t think Trump can be tough enough with China.”

PoliZette senior writer Brendan Kirby can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter.