Carney, Macron and Chinese windfarms come under fire

U.S. President Donald Trump backed away from tariffs on European countries and ruled out using force to take Greenland during his time at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

But his free-wheeling special address to the forum, which lasted for more than an hour, included the kind of attacks that have become a trademark of his presidency.

Trump touched on U.S. economic growth, his ongoing efforts to acquire Greenland from Denmark and wind energy in both Europe and China.

The U.S. president also made his feelings known about some Western political leaders and, in a subsequent speech, renewed his criticism of one NATO member in particular. Here’s a rundown of those who came under fire this week.

French President Emmanuel Macron spoke at Davos on Tuesday wearing dark, reflective sunglasses, prompting Trump to ask in his speech: “What the hell happened?”

“I watched him yesterday with his beautiful sunglasses,” Trump said on Wednesday, giving rise to some laughter in the auditorium.

Macron’s office later said the president chose to wear aviator sunglasses to protect his eyes due to a burst blood vessel, Reuters reported.

Macron, who didn’t mention Trump by name, used his speech to warn of a shift to “a world without rules” and decried “bullies”.

In his own speech, Trump claimed he had cajoled Macron into agreeing to raise drug prices in France, saying: “You’ve been screwing us for 30 years.”

The French presidency responded that this was “fake news” in a social media post, alongside a GIF of Trump mouthing the same phrase in front of a microphone.

“It’s being claimed that President @EmmanuelMacron increased the price of medicines,” the French presidency said on Wednesday.

“He does not set their prices. They are regulated by the social security system and have, in fact, remained stable. Anyone who has set foot in a French pharmacy knows this,” they added.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney gave one of the most caustic speeches of Davos, calling out “great powers” for weaponizing their economic might, and urging “middle powers” to act together, “because if we’re not at the table, we’re on the menu.”

“Canada gets a lot of freebies from us by the way,” Trump said in his speech the following day. “They should be grateful also but they are not. I watched your prime minister yesterday. He wasn’t so grateful.”

Trump added: “Canada lives because of the United States. Remember that, Mark, the next time you make your statements.”

After leaving Davos, Trump announced he had withdrawn his invitation for Carney to join his “Board of Peace” for Gaza.

Carney said last week that he intended to join the board but details, including financial terms, had yet to be worked out. Permanent members must pay $1 billion each.

Speaking at the signing ceremony for his “Board of Peace” on Thursday, Trump renewed his criticism of Spain over defense spending.

The NATO military alliance agreed in June last year to more than double their defense spending from 2% of GDPt to 5% by 2035. But Spain successfully pushed for an exemption, allowing its expenditure to remain around 2%.

“I don’t know what’s happening with Spain, why would they not do that? They want a free ride I guess, huh?” Trump said. “Every country but Spain increased to 5%. I don’t know why. We’re going to have to talk to Spain.”

Trump has previously threatened to make Spain pay for its refusal to meet the defense spending target and recently said Madrid has “no excuse” for paying less during a meeting with Finnish President Alexander Stubb.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said in June last year that he considers the country’s current defense spending of 2% of GDP as “sufficient, realistic and compatible with the welfare state.”

Switzerland’s former president, Karin Keller-Sutter, also faced criticism from Trump this week.

Referring to her as the Swiss “prime minister,” Trump said on Wednesday that he had received a call from Keller-Sutter after threatening to raise tariffs on Swiss goods to 30%.

“She said, ‘no, no, no, you cannot do that, 30%. You cannot do that. We are a small, small country.’ I said, ‘yeah, but you have a big, big deficit,'” Trump said. “She just rubbed me the wrong way, I’ll be honest with you.”

Trump said he raised Swiss tariffs to 39% after that call, reflecting one of the highest tariff rates imposed on one country by his administration.

The U.S. president agreed late last year to lower tariffs on Swiss products to 15%. Keller-Sutter’s term ended in December.

It wasn’t just political leaders that drew Trump’s ire. The U.S. president, a vocal critic of wind energy, took aim at windmills.

“There are windmills all over Europe,” Trump said during his Davos address. “There are windmills all over the place and they are losers. One thing I’ve noticed is that the more windmills a country has, the more money that country loses and the worse that country is doing.”

Trump added: “China makes almost all of the windmills, and yet I haven’t been able to find any wind farms in China. Did you ever think of that? It’s a good way of looking at it. They’re smart. China’s very smart. They make them, they sell them for a fortune, they sell them to the stupid people that buy them, but they don’t use them themselves.”

China, a global wind superpower, defended its renewables strategy in response, reaffirming its commitment to promoting low-carbon energy.

Trump’s comments were also shrugged off by EU Climate Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra and Vestas CEO Henrik Andersen.

“We take indeed a fundamentally different view here. We do feel that climate change has huge economic ramifications,” Hoekstra told CNBC on Wednesday.

In a separate interview, the chief executive of Denmark’s Vestas also disputed Trump’s claim that wind energy doesn’t work. “We continue exactly on the path that we have been,” Andersen told CNBC on Thursday.