DAVOS, Switzerland — The man who introduced Donald Trump to Melania Knauss wanted to infuse the world’s most elite economic conference with the spirit of MAGA. So Paolo Zampolli hauled a sculpture of a bull — symbol of wealth and strength — onto his friend’s private plane and brought it along to this exclusive Swiss ski town.
Zampolli, now the U.S. special representative for global partnerships, was part of history’s largest and most senior U.S. delegation ever to attend the World Economic Forum in Davos. And he was one of the driving forces that left a distinctly Trumpian mark on the place, both physical and political.
The bull spent the week inside a 19th-century church transformed into what organizers named USA House. The slogan: “Freedom.” The fare: cheeseburgers. The late-night karaoke: “Folsom Prison Blues” by Johnny Cash. The guests: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, White House AI and crypto czar David Sacks and some of the country’s most prominent CEOs.
The State Department, a long list of companies eager to help the American president, and Freedom 250, a group commissioned by the Trump administration to organize celebrations of the nation’s founding, helped lead the effort.
“You guys participated in history,” said Keith Krach, a lead organizer of USA House and the CEO of Freedom 250, from the USA House stage on Thursday. “Because what goes on in Davos doesn’t stay in Davos. It’s going to be spread around.”
The previous day, Trump had shattered the conventions of the annual economic forum here with a speech that undermined generations of transatlantic cooperation. His threats to control Greenland, and to turn weapons against Denmark in the process, dominated the week and forced world leaders to call emergency summits to keep the American president at bay.
As is often the case following Trump’s actions on the international stage, his allies added to the diplomatic shock with imagery and bravado that supported his agenda.
With Melania Trump posters, MAGA hats and coffee cups emblazoned with bald eagles, the president’s emissaries sought to refashion the culture of an alpine village known for raclette, skiing and billion-dollar dealmaking in his bombastic and distinctly American image.
“This is going to change the way Davos works for a long time,” said John Cronin, partner at Stromback Global, an international advising firm that does work in Davos and is an investor in USA House.
Davos has long symbolized swagger and excess — but also global economic cooperation.
For one week each year, Meta, Palantir and the world’s most valuable companies convert storefronts, garages and restaurants on the town’s main promenade into sleek lounges and event spaces, where they host client meetings and demo their latest products to lure investors.
The signs in the windows are often viewed as bellwethers for what will dominate boardroom discussions over the coming year. In recent years, the buzzwords have been AI and crypto.
The prospect of a more Trumpian experience was almost inevitable in Davos this year, given the tech industry’s embrace of the American president and European leaders’ overt efforts to make nice with him on topics including tariffs, Greenland and the war in Ukraine.
But the display this week, combined with Trump’s bellicosity, surpassed even those expectations.
A show of MAGA-styled American pride commandeered some of the most sought-after spaces, which usually cost millions of dollars to rent for the week. The USA House transformed an evangelical church into a marquee venue that drew Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, FIFA President Gianni Infantino and senior Trump administration officials such as Sarah Rogers, the undersecretary of state for public diplomacy.
Down the street, the U.S. operation converted a storefront into a delegate lounge, where rapper Will.i.am mingled with political operatives who helped deliver Trump’s White House win.
After hours, the team operated a dive bar called Studio 64 in a Swiss restaurant, decorating the wood-paneled walls with American license plates and beer signs from around the world. As a disco ball spun and espresso martinis flowed, organizers pledged that this year marked the beginning of a new era in Davos — where the American ethos would dominate and the political and social spheres would orient around a celebration of freedom in the United States.
Not all Davos regulars welcomed the makeover. Nor did the MAGA crowd embrace all visitors. Over lattes in conference centers and corporate lounges, some participants rolled their eyes and sighed when the topic of Trump came up. California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), initially invited for a fireside chat, was denied entry to the venue after pressure from the White House.
While a jostling crowd waited in line for more than an hour for a seat at Trump’s first speech, there was a far shorter wait the next morning, when he unveiled his “Board of Peace,” a planned diplomatic body with scope rivaling the United Nations but with the U.S. in charge.
And Elon Musk, Trump’s on-again, off-again political ally, received a muted response from the forum’s audience in a surprise appearance Thursday that prompted a rebuke from moderator Larry Fink.
“That was not a large applause,” said the BlackRock CEO, who frequently speaks to Trump. “Start again.”
The crowd inside USA House, meanwhile, was Trump-friendly. Groups congregated for watch parties whenever he spoke. Long lines formed outside the church for talks and cocktail hours. Security guards bounced wannabe guests lacking invitations for VIP events.
As the forum wound down Thursday night, the State Department, which oversaw part of the U.S. presence at Davos, started to tidy the trappings of Trump’s visit. There was a lot to clean up. The private plane that had ferried the bull to Davos had also been so packed with books by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and other swag that Lou Reese, a leader of the Make America Healthy Again Movement, had to sleep in the aisle on his way to Switzerland. The cargo included posters for the upcoming documentary about the first lady, “Melania.” Reese got permission to display the signs at Davos before they were released anywhere else.
The swag would not stay in the alpine town.
Finally, one of the last crowds at USA House filtered out of the sanctuary and began moving down the icy sidewalks. Zampolli became concerned about the fate of his bull. The statue is a miniature of the controversial, 7,100-pound bronze artwork by Arturo Di Modica that sits near the New York Stock Exchange. Some Occupy Wall Street demonstrators rallied next to the bull to protest corporate greed in response to the 2008 financial crisis, but attempts to remove it from the center of American capitalism have failed.
On Thursday night, State Department employees moved the bull into a tent, where it joined a metal detector that had been used all week to control admission to USA House.
The post Inside USA House: The converted church that left a MAGA mark on Davos appeared first on Washington Post.
