'America First' in Davos

“Trump campaigned against global elites,” one of the L.A. Times' stupider headlines reads. “Now he is joining them in Davos.”

There is, of course, no contradiction in a president who ran on populism doing his job at a forum of global elites. There is also no contradiction between Trump’s proclaimed nationalism and Davos’s mission of collaboration and cooperation among nations.

Trump is neither a political philosopher nor an economic theoretician. His policy views vary from month to month and issue to issue. So, in practice, his nationalism boils down to the simple idea that the federal government ought to be serving the American people.

“I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris," said Trump succinctly and eloquently.

Trump doesn’t always have the right ideas on how to do this. His tariffs on solar panels and washing machines are great examples of what's sometimes called "economic nationalism" that, in truth, hurts the national interest. And while we’ve criticized the details of some of his foreign policy and immigration orders, we believe he has recalibrated policymaking towards the question, “What is in the interest of Americans?”