Trump leaked private text messages from world leaders in the middle of the night. He sent a text message to Norway’s Prime Minister threatening to seize Greenland because he didn’t receive a Nobel Peace Prize. With Trump’s increasingly unstable behavior fomenting global chaos, tanking capital markets, will business leaders at Davos finally speak up?
By Nancy Levine Stearns | January 20, 2026
President Donald Trump is expected to meet global business leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Wednesday, Reuters reports. Trump’s erratic behavior has spurred instability in capital markets. Today, CNBC reported on the Dow dropping, “as Trump’s Greenland scheme sparks U.S. capital flight, fear of global trade war.”
Trump leaked a text message from French president Emmanuel Macron in the middle of the night on Tuesday. Macron texted: “I do not understand what you are doing on Greenland.” The president also posted an illustrated meme showing himself planting a U.S. flag next to a sign saying: “GREENLAND – US TERRITORY – EST. 2026.”
On Monday, Trump sent a text message to Norway Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, tying his failure to be awarded a Nobel Peace Prize to threats to seize Greenland, as first reported by PBS.
In a statement, the prime minister said, “Norway’s position on Greenland is clear. Greenland is a part of the Kingdom of Denmark, and Norway fully supports the Kingdom of Denmark on this matter. We also support that NATO in a responsible way is taking steps to strengthen security and stability in the Arctic. As regards the Nobel Peace Prize, I have clearly explained, including to president Trump what is well known, the prize is awarded by an independent Nobel Committee and not the Norwegian Government,” said the Prime Minister.
While NATO countries including Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom, released a statement in support of Greenland, to this point, business leaders have remained silent.
Paul Krugman, who received the 2008 Nobel Prize for Economics, wrote: “Big Business Should End Its Faustian Bargain With Trump: He’s out of control – and if you don’t hang together to counter him, you’ll hang separately.”
The CEO members who make up Business Roundtable, an association of chief executives, lead 200-plus companies with more than 16 million employees and more than $7 trillion in annual revenues.
Chuck Robbins, Chair of Business Roundtable, Chair and Chief Executive Officer of Cisco, posted on LinkedIn last week: “I look forward to working with the [Business Roundtable] Board and the full membership — as well as the Trump Administration and Congress — as we continue to strengthen America’s capacity to build, innovate and succeed for generations to come.”
Trump’s allies have targeted the Business Roundtable over DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion). The president has made the war on DEI a centerpiece of his presidency, following the mandate set forth by Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation’s blueprint for white Christian nationalism.
State attorneys general from Missouri and Arkansas led 14 Republican AGs, sending a letter last year to Joshua Bolten, CEO of the Business Roundtable, urging the organization’s member CEOs to abandon DEI initiatives. The Business Roundtable did not publicly respond to the AGs’ demands. Investors, boards, and CEOs have reiterated the business imperative of DEI, as Impactivize previously reported.
CEOs of the Business Roundtable are not the only silent enablers among business leaders. Last week, Trump delivered a speech littered with false claims to the Detroit Economic Club (DEC). A spokesperson for the DEC told Impactivize that all 87 Board members of the DEC extend an “open invitation” to Trump to speak whenever he wants to, per DEC policy, despite the rise of fascism.
Robert Rubin, former U.S. Treasury Secretary, wrote for the The Wall Street Journal last week: “Why Have Business Leaders Gone Silent? Everyone is intimidated by President Trump, but we need to find the courage to stand up against abuses.”
No one from the Business Roundtable has responded to multiple inquiries.