This kind of rhetoric is clearly aimed at voters in key swing states such as Ohio and Wisconsin. But it was also designed to impress the international audience at Davos. And, to a certain extent, it seems to be working.
Two years ago, when Trump spoke at the gathering, the atmosphere in the conference hall was electric, teetering between hilarity and hostility. But this year, Trump's reception was more respectful and the mood was flatter.
If Trump concentrates largely on domestic affairs during this election year, it would probably suit many of the non-Americans in the Davos crowd, who have been alarmed by years of trade wars and, more recently, by the spike in military tensions between the US and Iran.
However, implicit in Trump's speech were two potential sources of tension in US-European relations over the coming year: the environment and trade.
Trump was preceded on stage at Davos by Greta Thunberg, the young climate activist, and many of the sessions at the World Economic Forum are devoted to climate change and environmental issues. But the US president used his address to link modern-day climate activists to "prophets of doom" from previous eras, who in the 1960s and 1970s predicted "the apocalypse" over dwindling food supplies or overpopulation.
He urged his audience to embrace optimism and to put its faith in market-based solutions and the advance of technology. This argument is at odds with the current mood in Europe, and potentially sets up further clashes between the US and its European partners over international efforts to combat climate change.
European leaders in Davos are also concerned that, with a truce now declared in the US-China trade war, Trump may turn his attention to Europe and make good on longstanding trade threats.
The US president refrained from making direct threats of tariffs. But he did claim to have secured historic trade deals with China, Canada and Mexico, and argued that these supposed breakthroughs would not have been possible without the deployment of tariffs.
European fears that they are next in line to be "tariffed" were eased on the eve of Davos by the announcement that the US would not proceed with the imposition of tariffs, in response to a French tax on digital services. France has in return agreed to delay the collection of revenues from the tax, although not to drop it altogether.
This dispute is being watched closely by the EU, since any US tariffs on France would probably be met with EU-wide retaliation, potentially triggering a transatlantic trade war.
Several other European countries are also planning their own digital services tax.
While tensions around the digital-services tax have been relaxed, they clearly have the potential to resurge. The Europeans are also concerned that Trump may eventually act on his threat to impose tariffs on German car exports, a longstanding personal obsession.
The Trump administration also raised the threat of motor tariffs as part of a dispute with Germany over policy towards Iran, which demonstrates how geopolitical and trade issues can merge into one another. That is a concern at a time when the future of Nato, the centrepiece of the transatlantic alliance, has been openly questioned both by Trump and Emmanuel Macron, French president.
But while Europeans are concerned with trade, the environment and Nato, they are finally getting used to Trump's style. Statements and actions that would have been treated with incredulity or consternation not so long ago are now met with a shrug or a cautious "wait and see" attitude.
The global elite, as represented in Davos, is not only getting accustomed to Trump, it is also mentally preparing for four more years.
The conventional wisdom at the World Economic Forum is that the US president is likely to win re-election in November. Arguably, that should be a source of concern for Trump, given the Davos crowd's unerring ability to get things wrong.
Written by: Gideon Rachman
© Financial Times
