Former Vice President Al Gore booed Trump’s Commerce Secretary. The head of the European Central Bank stormed out. And “widespread jeering” filled the room as guests walked out mid-speech.
That was the scene at an exclusive VIP dinner in Davos, Switzerland on Tuesday when Howard Lutnick—one of Trump’s most devoted lackeys—tried to lecture the world’s financial elite about how “capitalism has a new sheriff in town.”
WHAT’S GOING ON: Lutnick was the final speaker at an invite-only dinner hosted by BlackRock’s Larry Fink during the World Economic Forum, according to The Daily Beast.
What was supposed to be a high-powered networking event devolved into chaos as the Commerce Secretary launched into a combative diatribe about Europe’s “declining influence” and energy policies.
Christine Lagarde, president of the European Central Bank, reportedly bolted for the door. Al Gore heckled him from the crowd. Fink himself had to appeal for calm as the dinner went completely off the rails.
A spokesperson for Lutnick claimed there was no walk-out and insisted he only spoke for three minutes. (Three minutes of berating your hosts apparently counts as diplomacy in Trump World.)
THE DETAILS: The reception came after Lutnick published a combative op-ed in the Financial Times earlier that day, which read like a MAGA manifesto dressed up for the business class. “We’re not going to Davos to uphold the status quo. We’re going to confront it head-on,” he blustered.
He also wrote: “For far too long, the fate of the global economy has been decided by an international establishment who took America’s economic power and gave it to the rest of the world.” Standard grievance politics, repackaged for billionaires.
This all comes at an already tense moment in U.S.-European relations. Trump is actively pushing to seize Greenland from Denmark—a NATO ally—and just amplified a social media post suggesting NATO, not Russia or China, is America’s main enemy.
BUT BUT BUT: French President Emmanuel Macron wasn’t having any of it. He took the Davos stage wearing Top Gun-style sunglasses and delivered a pointed rebuke without naming names.
“Let’s not accept the global order which will be decided by those who claim to have the bigger voice, or the bigger teeth, or the bigger… I don’t know,” Macron said. “Let’s not waste time with crazy ideas.”
He also took a direct swipe at the “bullies” now dominating the world stage: “We do prefer respect to bullies. We do prefer science to politicism. And we prefer the rule of law to brutality.”
WHY IT MATTERS: This wasn’t some random conference panel. This was Davos—the annual gathering where the world’s most powerful business leaders, financiers, and politicians network over $20 cocktails. These are exactly the people the Trump administration needs if they want to maintain American economic dominance.
Instead, Lutnick managed to alienate the room so thoroughly that the head of Europe’s central bank walked out and a former U.S. vice president openly booed him. Trump arrived in Davos on Wednesday for a keynote speech, barely 24 hours after a rambling, incoherent press conference at the White House. When asked if he’d bring up Greenland, he offered only: “You’ll find out.”
The message from the world’s elite seems pretty clear: they’re not impressed by the new sheriff in town.