Despite the conference being thousands of miles away from the location that kicks off the 2024 presidential election season, U.S. politics are top-of-mind for some attendees. Specifically, CEOs, bankers, and policymakers in attendance are expressing concern over the possibility of a second term for former President Donald Trump. “You know, we’ve been there before, we survived it, so we’ll see what it means,” BlackRock Inc. Vice Chairman Philipp Hildebrand told Bloomberg Television during an interview. “Certainly from a European perspective, from a kind of globalist, Atlanticist perspective, it’s of course a great concern.” Hildebrand previously headed Switzerland’s central bank and resigned from his position in 2012 amid a scandal involving his wife, who engaged in a currency exchange that allowed her to profit from a policy change made by the central bank. Hildebrand has previously leveled criticism at Trump. During the WEF conference in 2018, he said that Trump’s “protectionist U.S. trade policy is the biggest risk to global economic recovery.” This year, former U.S. Vice President Al Gore is among the voices concerned over the potential of another Trump presidency but suggested his re-election is not guaranteed. “I don’t think that it’s a foregone conclusion,” he told Bloomberg Television in Davos. “I’ve been through the process, I’ve run four national campaigns over the years and seen it from that perspective. I’ve seen a lot of surprises over the years. Something tells me this may be a year of significant surprises. I hope it’s the case because I don’t want to see him re-nominated and re-elected.”The World Economic Forum’s (WEF’s) annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland opens on the same day as the Iowa caucuses.
Trump Nomination Not a Foregone Conclusion, Gore Says Gore also cautioned about giving the Iowa caucuses too much weight. “I’m not sure they’re as significant as some believe," he said. “There have been so many examples – last time in 2016 Ted Cruz won the Iowa caucus, and then it mattered not a whit. We’ve seen others win the Iowa caucus on the Republican side and then disappear.”
Former US Vice President Al Gore says “I don’t think that it’s a foregone conclusion” when asked about Donald Trump's chances of securing the Republican nomination. “Something tells me this may be a year of significant… pic.twitter.com/GK87OTTElF
— Camus (@newstart_2024) January 15, 2024
