Trump Uses Davos Speech to Brag That He Can “Crush” the Housing Market

Donald Trump said, during his remarks at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Wednesday, that he could crush the housing market if he wanted to.

“I am very protective of people that already own a house, of which we have millions and millions and millions. And because we have had such a good run, the house values have gone up tremendously, and these people have become wealthy. They weren’t wealthy,” Trump said. “They’ve become wealthy because of their house, and every time you make it more and more and more affordable for somebody to buy a house cheaply, you’re actually hurting the value of those houses obviously, because one thing works in tandem with the other.”

Trump went on to say that he could easily crush the housing market by making it easier to buy homes.

“Now if I want to really crush the housing market, I could do that so fast and people could buy houses. But you would destroy a lot of people that already have houses. In some cases, they’ve mortgaged their house and the mortgage would be very low, and all of a sudden the mortgage without any changes becomes very high and they end up losing the house,” Trump continued, adding that “we should be paying the lowest interest rate of any country in the world because without the United States we don’t have a country.”

Trump’s alarming assessment of housing affordability shows that he still thinks like a landlord and property developer concerned about the value of his own assets. At a time when people are concerned about affordability in their lives, particularly when it comes to owning or renting a place to live, the president seems more concerned with people who already own property than those who are struggling.

In Trump’s own hometown, newly elected NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani was elected in a landslide on an agenda of freezing rent and making the city a more affordable place to live for everyone. It’s quite evident that Trump thinks doing that would “crush the housing market” and hurt the people who really matter to him: those wealthy enough to own a home already.

President Trump used his time at the World Economic Forum on Wednesday in Davos to admonish Canada as its leaders look to other world powers for more coherent and consistent partnership.

“We’re going to build the greatest golden dome ever built … that’s going to just, by its very nature, going to be defending Canada,” Trump said, referring to his far-fetched plan to build a defense system covering the entire North American continent, a larger version of Israel’s short-range Iron Dome.

“Canada gets a lot of freebies from us, by the way. They should be grateful also, but they’re not,” Trump continued. “I watched your prime minister yesterday, he wasn’t so grateful. They should be grateful to us.… Canada lives because of the United States. Remember that, Mark, the next time you make your statements.”

The Trump administration has shown increased aggression toward NATO and North American allies alike, eroding years of soft power and diplomatic relations.

“We knew the story of the international rules-based order was partially false. That the strongest would exempt themselves when convenient. That trade rules were enforced asymmetrically,” Carney said at his Tuesday speech in Davos. “And we knew that international law applied with varying rigor depending on the identity of the accused or the victim.

“This fiction was useful, and American hegemony in particular helped provide public goods. Open sea lanes, a stable financial system, collective security, and support for frameworks for resolving disputes,” Carney continued. “We participated in the rituals, and we largely avoided calling out the gaps between rhetoric and reality. This bargain no longer works. Let me be direct. We are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition.”

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick faced a tough crowd at the World Economic Forum in Davos—and was heckled by a surprising, but familiar, former U.S. vice president.

During an official dinner Tuesday night, Lutnick reportedly launched into a tirade criticizing Europe, inviting jeers from the forum’s major members, heads of state, and other dignitaries.

“We are here at Davos to make one thing crystal clear: With President Trump, capitalism has a new sheriff in town,” Lutnick said, according to the Financial Times.

Multiple people reportedly started heckling Lutnick’s speech—including former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, who started booing the secretary, two executives told the Times. Amid the chaos, Christine Lagarde, the president of the European Central Bank, walked out of the dinner.

The hosting WEF chairman, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, ended up calling off the event before desserts had been passed out, one source told Reuters.

The U.S. Commerce Department claimed that Gore was the only one who booed.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum Wednesday, Trump continued the American posturing as he tried to take credit for Europe’s existence in a winding, incoherent address.

What are Donald Trump’s goals for 2026? They’re all over the place.

The president was asked about his goals in regard to getting his agenda through Congress ahead of the midterms, and he gave a meandering answer about his own executive orders.  

“We passed so many executive orders. I have great executive orders that are really common sense and good. I mean, like water coming out of a sink. The water wouldn’t come out. They had all sorts of ridiculous restrictions. I took all of that off,” Trump said to Katie Pavlich on NewsNation Tuesday night. “Coming out of the shower head, you’d stand under the shower, there’s no water coming out, so I passed—so many things like that. 

“Straws. They don’t have to be paper anymore. They don’t have to melt in your mouth.… I’d like to have that all confirmed by Congress,” Trump continued, before adding that he got more important things accomplished through executive order, and would like to have all of his executive orders confirmed by Congress, estimating that 35 to 40 percent of his executive orders have already become law. 

“So you want your executive orders codified in law, so to speak,” Pavlich said. 

“Ideally, we get ’em codified and we get ’em codified soon, yes,” Trump replied.

Trump is well known for rambling and meandering around reporter’s questions, even in friendly interviews. But the vagueness indicates he’s either fully checked out or he’s hiding his agenda, as Trump and his inner circle are unlikely to settle for simply turning his many damaging executive orders through Congress. 

Getting Trump’s agenda through Congress will be a tall order. The president could barely get his own budget through Congress last year, and ended up causing a lengthy government shutdown. Trump’s executive orders also would have to survive court challenges, and some of them may not even get through the right-wing Supreme Court. 

America’s presence at the World Economic Forum Wednesday was overshadowed by its leader’s latest obsession: obtaining Greenland—or, maybe, Iceland, depending on Donald Trump’s ability to remember his military aim.

Thousands of influential figures, including prominent CEOs and world leaders, gathered in Davos ahead of the global conference. Trump was asked to deliver opening remarks Wednesday, but his speech went wildly off the rails as he began to hyperfixate on his rationale for staking an American flag in Greenland, a Danish-controlled territory.

But over the course of an hour-long (and counting, at time of publication) speech, Trump repeatedly and erroneously mixed up Greenland with Iceland, a completely separate landmass and independent nation, raising alarm over just how educated Trump is on the focal point of his U.S. expansion.

Before a host of European leaders—including some of America’s longest allies—Trump insisted that “there’s nothing wrong” with the potential acquisition, likening his desired annexation of the region to Europe’s colonial history.

“Just as the European nations have,” Trump said. “All the United States is asking for is a place called Greenland.”

Trump reiterated that the U.S. could take Greenland by the use of “excessive force” that would be “practically unstoppable.”

The president has been locked into the idea of obtaining Greenland since at least 2019, when he told reporters that the arrangement could be handled as a “large real estate deal.”

In recent weeks, the president’s threats have escalated in fervor and frequency. Earlier this month, Trump told The Atlantic that the U.S. “needs” Greenland “for defense.” But what exactly the White House stands to gain from controlling Greenland isn’t clear, particularly because myriad existing treaties already give the U.S. unfettered access to Greenland as a military base.

Forcing the issue, however, could irreversibly damage America’s relations with some of its most significant allies. Over the long weekend, Trump announced a new wave of retaliatory tariffs against European countries that oppose his Greenland takeover, cautioning NATO allies against participation in a joint military exercise on the island.

Late into Monday evening, Trump continued to provoke America’s allies by releasing private messages sent to him by French President Emmanuel Macron, as well as NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. He also taunted world leaders by sharing images on Truth Social that included a photo of himself in the Oval Office beside a posterboard of the Western hemisphere—with Canada, Greenland, and Venezuela colored in with the American flag.

“This would not be a threat to NATO,” Trump claimed before the global conference Wednesday, patting himself on the back for his lackluster support for the U.S.-backed military alliance. “This would greatly enhance the security of the whole alliance. The United States is treated very unfairly by NATO. When you think about it, nobody can dispute it.

“You have a choice. You can say yes, and we will be very appreciative, or you can say no, and we will remember.”