President Donald Trump said on Twitter Thursday that he will skip his planned trip to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland due to the ongoing government shutdown.
Trump had been scheduled to leave Jan. 21, but aides have reportedly been worried about the optics of a president planning for a trip to a confab of billionaires and celebrities just as hundreds of thousands of federal employees miss their first paycheck. The government shutdown was in its 20th day Thursday.
Stocks immediately reacted negatively to the Trump tweet. Volume in the major indices spiked, drawing some of the most notable interest of the day. S&P 500 futures fell about 4 points, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell about 40 points and the Nasdaq fell about 10 points.
'America First' Vs. 'Globalization 4.0'
Trump was the first American president since Bill Clinton in 2000 to attend the global gathering when he went briefly last year. Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and George H.W. Bush never attended. President Ronald Reagan never went, but did address the gathering by video link more than once.
Trump’s “America First” agenda — which spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders had said Trump was looking forward to promoting — doesn’t exactly fit in all that well at Davos, which is typically focused more on globalism and international cooperation.
The theme for the 2019 meeting is “Globalization 4.0: Shaping a Global Architecture in the Age of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.”
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and other Cabinet members are still expected to attend the forum, The Associated Press reported.
Related Links:
Trump Says GDP Growth Will Be 'Much Higher' Than 4% In 2018 Davos Interview
Government Shutdown Looms: What You Need To Know
White House photo by Shealah Craighead.
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