Ben Rhodes

That's much better than, you know, anything else.

And if it gets in the bond markets, it's fine.

Well, yeah, we should – Bill Clinton went to Davos.

George W. Bush never went to Davos.

Barack Obama never went to Davos, right?

So this guy runs against elites and he just can't wait to get to Davos.

Obsessed with them.

Every single one of his cabinet secretaries seems to be there.

Yeah, he's obsessed with these people.

But the core point is you're not going to charm him or persuade him, right?

The charm is these sycophantic texts and praise.

I mean, the Mark Rutte thing.

We should just spend a minute on this cloud, right?

I mean, NATO needs to toss that guy overboard.

Not that they will, but I will defend your policies on Ukraine on television, he's saying, like policies that run directly counter to what NATO wants or what the rest of NATO wants.

But, like, they've tried that.

You need leverage.

Like, not persuasion, not charm.

You need to show you've got skin in the game.

I would say one of the reasons the European leaders don't do it, right, is that they feel politically weak.