The president of the Heritage Foundation lambasted the world’s “political elites” and “technocrats” while speaking on a recent panel at the annual World Economic Forum.
The World Economic Forum (WEF) is renowned for attracting financial and political leaders from around the world. This year, organizers extended invitations to a wider layer of thought leaders from across the political spectrum. Among the unconventional invitees to speak at this event in Davos, Switzerland, was Kevin Roberts, president of the right-leaning Heritage Foundation.
The Heritage Foundation is a think tank whose stated mission is “to formulate and promote public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defense.”
Speaking on a panel titled “What to expect from a possible Republican administration,” Roberts said that the next Republican administration would have a populist mandate to oppose practically every objective set forth by the WEF.
“[T]he agenda that every single member of the administration needs to have is to compile a list of everything that’s ever been proposed at the World Economic Forum and object to all of them wholesale,” he said. “Anyone not prepared to do that and take away this power of the unelected bureaucrats and give it back to the American people is unprepared to be part of the next conservative administration.”
In an exchange with the moderator, Robin Niblett, Roberts took exception to how the British specialist in international relations presumed that another Donald Trump presidency would threaten the liberal democracy the WEF has purportedly been “standing up” for.
“It’s laughable that you or anyone would describe Davos as ‘protecting liberal democracy,’” Roberts said. “It’s equally laughable to use the word ‘dictatorship’ at Davos and aim that at President Trump. In fact, I think that’s absurd.”
Niblett asked Roberts to speculate on figures he believed would be included in a second Trump administration, per Fox Business. Roberts demurred to name specific persons but did provide a profile of the type of populism he believed would direct the administration’s members.
“I’ll be candid here because I think I’ve been invited here to be candid. The kind of person who will come into the next conservative administration is going to be governed by one principle, and that is destroying the grasp that political elites and unelected technocrats have over the average person,” Roberts said.
Roberts also elaborated on some of the major issues he claimed elites, represented by the WEF agenda, were out of step with the average person on.
“[T]he very reason that I’m here at Davos is to explain to many people in this room and who are watching, with all due respect, nothing personal, but that you’re part of the problem,” he said.
Roberts then explained how Trump, if elected again, would oppose the elite consensus and side with the people:
“Political elites tell the average people on three or four or five issues that the reality is X when, in fact, reality is Y. Take immigration: elites tell us that open borders and even illegal immigration are okay. The average person tells us in the United States that both rob them of the American way of life. They’re right. President Trump will take that on, on behalf of the average American.”
“Elites also tell us that public safety isn’t a problem in big American cities,” Roberts continued. “Just travel to New York, or Washington, or Dallas, Texas. The average person will tell you that the lack of public safety damages not just the American way of life but their life. President Trump will take that on.”wRoberts also poured cold water on one of the core beliefs of many at Davos.
“Elites tell us that we have this existential crisis with so-called climate change. So much so that climate alarmism is probably the greatest cause of mental health crises in the world. The solutions, the average person knows, are far worse and more harmful and cost more human lives, especially in Europe during the time that you need heating, than the problems themselves,” he said.
Roberts was also critical of what he described as the WEF’s cozy relationship with China, which he called “the number one adversary not just to the United States, but to free people on planet Earth.”
Finally, Roberts also accused the World Health Organization of “foisting gender ideology upon the Global South” even as its tenets were being questioned in the more developed Western world.
“The new president, especially if it’s President Trump, will, as you like to say, ‘trust the science.’ He will understand the basic biological reality of manhood and womanhood. And do you know why? Not because of retribution, not because he’s a dictator, but because he has the power of the American people behind him,” he said.