Decoding the Davos tribes - reflections from WEF ’26

The delegations are down from the mountains with the various heads of government and corporate titans back in their respective hot seats. The blur of high-profile bilateral meetings and panel sessions pondering everything from the AI innovation to the fractious state of the global world order is finally over - at least for another year. Many will have spent the last few days catching up on their sleep but also reflecting on what was by any measure an exceptional week. 

To briefly recap, this was one of the largest meetings to date. Nearly 3,000 leaders from more than 130 countries came together at the 56th Annual Meeting to explore cooperation and innovation, investing in people, new sources of growth, and building shared prosperity within planetary boundaries. Bringing together heads of state, business leaders, cultural figures, and voices from civil society and academia, the meeting was held under the theme “A Spirit of Dialogue.” 

But it was Trump of course who stole the show bringing an energy and relevance to Davos that many of us have never witnessed before. Even the Presidential motorcade felt even longer than the last time I remember it. Once the motorcade had swept Trump to the Congress Centre, all the Davos tribes seemed to stop as everyone was transfixed with what Trump actually had to say. His hour-long speech outlined his long list of achievements while singling out multiple world leaders and allies for criticism.

Aside from Davos this year becoming a mirror of the current fractious global world order, what interested me this year was the emergence of a new set of Davos tribes which now seem even clearer drawn but also complex. Yes, Davos split this year into two camps: the pro-Trump delegation signed up to the mantra of US protectionism, foreign tariffs designed to create US growth and stimulus and neo imperialism where the US can invade foreign countries in the name of US and global security. Combine this with the crypto crowd on the Promenade and - whether you like it or not - this tribe now symbolises the new America.   

The anti-Trump tribe on the other side of the Davos promenade feels more complex. Take the group of senior business leaders I watched Trump’s sixty-minute odd ramble with. Jaws dropped as he stated that without the US, European leaders "would all be speaking German... and a little Japanese perhaps". He criticized Denmark for its swift fall to Nazi Germany in 1940 to justify his pursuit of acquiring Greenland warning leaders that if they opposed the move, "we will remember".  But this tribe who are aghast with Trump feels it has to publicly remain more silent with the risk of criticising Trump outweighing the reward. This is the group that is Privately Fuming, Publicly Silent.

Then there’s the group that is loud, proud and shouting Trump down – in some cases quite literally. Alastair Campbell and Rory Stewart brought their famed podcast The Rest is Politics to Davos. Campbell talked of queuing for two hours for Trump’s speech in the Congress Centre. After taking his seat and hearing Trump’s musings, he started to issue a heckle. He was told by Trump’s acolytes to keep the noise down. He was later joined on his podcast by Davos regular, Anthony Scaramucci. The ‘mooch’ took to the airwaves to lambast his one-time former boss and questioning Trump’s mental acuity. This group, alongside those on the Promenade with placards referring to Trump as a fascist are the most obviously angry group in Davos.  Defenders of centrist Liberal Democracy and globalists to their core, this is the group characterised by What They Say in Private, They Say in Public.     

However, there’s also a third tribe evident in Davos that is arguably the most interesting group of all. These are the business leaders who are more cautious in their criticism of Trump and pivoting instead to commentary that is broader, focused on the long-term while avoiding personal criticism of the world’s new Sheriff. 

Take Jamie Dimon, the Chairman & CEO of JP Morgan Chase.  Invited by Economist Editor, Zanny Minton Beddoes in Davos to articulate more publicly the views he has on Trump that he has apparently shared with her in private, Dimon rightly resisted. “Look, I’m a globalist” he eventually said before adding “There’s your headline”. At no point did he directly criticise Trump. After all, where is the business advantage? Dimon and his C-suite cohorts are what you might call the most polished Corporate Diplomats. This group pulls away from the Trump specifics and views things through a broader lens. In Dimon’s case, it’s being in favour of a stronger NATO, a stronger Europe with a review of the current US approach to immigration. Dimon avoids mentioning the ‘T’ word at every opportunity. 

Getting too close to the day-to-day political fray has clear risks but building reputation also needs to be rooted back to substance. This has been evidenced in SEC Newgate’s most recent Impact Monitor. Against a backdrop of heightened geopolitical tensions, the study noted a rising global preference for businesses to evidence manufacture, hire, and source materials locally, even if this leads to higher consumer costs. Evidencing local contributions were found to be closely linked to improved perceptions of organisations. Balancing these expectations in communications is critical. 

For sure, WEF ’26 has indeed served as a mirror of the fractures we see in the new global world order. But it has also offered new thinking for how to deal with it - for politicians, business leaders and for us as strategic communicators.