From Wind Farms to Stolen Elections: Fact-Checking Donald Trump’s Speech at Davos

In his much anticipated speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Wednesday, President Donald Trump reiterated his desire to take over Greenland, railed against wind farms, and criticized what he claimed was an imbalance in trade between the United States and the rest of the world. He also delved into a range of domestic political issues, airing grievances against Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar, and former President Joe Biden. Here are some of the key claims that Trump made in his speech. Read more: Newsom Tells World Leaders to Stand Up to Trump: ‘It’s Just Pathetic’  The U.S. gave Greenland back What Trump said: “After the war, which we won, without us, you’d all be speaking German and a little Japanese. After the war, we gave Greenland back to Denmark. How stupid were we to do that? How ungrateful are they now?” “So we want a piece of ice for world protection. And they won’t give it.” The facts: The U.S. never owned Greenland. In 1941, during the Second World War, the U.S. and Denmark signed an agreement granting the U.S. the right to establish military bases on the island to defend it from Nazi Germany, while recognizing the sovereignty of the Kingdom of Denmark over the territory. The island is, however, covered with a large amount of ice. The U.S. pays for NATO  What Trump said: “We pay for NATO. We paid for many years, until I came along, in my opinion, 100% of NATO, because they weren’t paying their bills. ” The facts: This is an inaccurate claim that Trump has been repeating since his first presidency. NATO figures show that in 2025, the United States paid for roughly 16% of its budget. In the same year, 31 of the 32 NATO members are estimated to have contributed 2% of their GDP to NATO. China has no wind farms  What Trump said: “China makes almost all of the wind mills, and yet I haven’t been able to find any wind farms in China… They make them. They sell them for a fortune…But they don’t use them themselves.” The facts: China’s installations of windmills in 2024 made up 70% of the global total, and the cumulative electricity capacity was more than 520 GW, accounting for almost 50% of the total global wind power installed capacity, according to a report from the Global Wind Energy Council. Europe’s energy prices are higher  What Trump said: “Germany now generates 22% less electricity than it did in 2017… and the electricity prices are “64% higher.” “The United Kingdom produces just 1/3 of the total energy from all sources that it did in 1999.” The facts: Germany generated a total of 406.9 TWh of electricity in 2025, a 25% decrease from 2017, when it generated 546.9 TWh, according to reports from the Fraunhofer Institute. Electricity prices, however, have increased by 35%, according to the statistics from Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy. As for the United Kingdom, the country generated a total of 285 TWh of electricity in 2024, 25% less than it produced in 2000, according to data from the UK government. The 2020 election was stolen  What Trump said: “It’s a war that should have never started and it wouldn’t have started if the 2020 US presidential election weren’t rigged. It was a rigged election. Everybody now knows that. They found out. People will soon be prosecuted for what they did. ” The facts: There is no evidence that the 2020 election was rigged. Following the election, Republicans at the federal and state levels launched multiple investigations into the results of the 2020 election and found no rampant voter fraud. Trump’s former lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, baselessly claimed that Dominion Voting Systems manipulated its results in favor of former President Joe Biden. Dominion sued Giuliani for defamation, and Giuliani reached a confidential settlement in 2025. He was also disbarred in New York and Washington, D.C. for repeating false statements regarding the 2020 elections.