Historian and academic Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation, the most influential conservative think tank in the United States, attended a panel at the World Economic Forum in Davos (or WEF) and, like President Javier Milei from Argentina, took the opportunity to challenge the bureaucrats in attendance.
"It's laughable that you—or anyone—would dare to describe Davos as protecting liberal democracy. It's equally laughable to talk about 'dictatorship' in relation to President Trump," Roberts responded to another WEF panelist.
"If President Trump wins the election—or any conservative who becomes president—he is going to take power away from the elites. But the reason I am in Davos is to explain that many people in this room, and what you're seeing, with all due respect — it's nothing personal — it's part of the problem," he said.
He then said that political elites tell people what to think about specific issues when reality differs. So Roberts cites one such problem: "For example, immigration. Elites tell us open borders, and even illegal immigration, are fine. But the average person in America thinks both of those things rob them of their American way of life."
"The elites also tell us that security is not a problem in big cities in the United States. Go and travel to New York, Washington or Dallas. Well, the average person will tell you that insecurity not only damages the American way of life, but his own life," he said.
As a third example, the Heritage president spoke about climate change and how elites tell people that it is an existential crisis and one of the biggest and most important causes. However, Roberts assures that"the proposed solutions, the average person knows, are worse and more damaging, and cost more human lives, especially in Europe during times when you need heating, than the problem."
Fourthly, Kevin Roberts talks about China, which he describes as one of the greatest threats to the free world. For the president of Heritage, stating that is unthinkable in Davos where, in addition, the Chinese communist regime is given a platform.
Finally, Roberts mentions how the World Health Organization seeks to "impose gender ideology" in the poorest countries, where the issue is not even discussed.
In short, his response was a defense of what former President Trump would do if he returned to the White House, in contrast to the notion of some speakers at the WEF that he would be a "dictator."
As a notable nod, at the end of his statement, Roberts quoted the president of Argentina himself, Javier Milei. "And President Trump, if he wins, will be inspired by the wise words of Javier Milei, who said that he is in power, 'not to lead sheep, but to awaken lions.'"
My message to the self-appointed global elites: Your time is up. pic.twitter.com/Wj2Bntjztz
— Kevin Roberts (@KevinRobertsTX) January 18, 2024
Roberts' speech, which has already tallied more than 4 million views on X (Formerly Twitter), magnifies the truths in Javier Milei's speech in which he challenged the very essence of the WEF at their own meeting.
President Milei reacted to Roberts' participation and wrote on X: "The ending will not go down well with the impoverishing leftist Argentines."
El remate no le caerá para nada bien a la progresía empobrecedora argenta... https://t.co/PqjQiDga8p
— Javier Milei (@JMilei) January 19, 2024
At another point in his speech, Kevin Roberts took aim directly at the Davos Forum, saying that "the type of person who would be at the head of the next conservative administration is going to govern under one principle: destroy the dominance that political elites and the technocrats who have not been elected have over the average person. And if I may, I would be naive and say that the agenda that each member of that administration should have is to put together a list of each of the things that have been proposed in the World Economic Forum and object to each one."
"Not all heroes wear capes," Senator Mike Lee said of Roberts' words. Influencer Ian Miles Cheong wrote in
As Cheong also suggested in his post, it seems a trend has begun at the World Economic Forum. The efforts of Milei and Roberts, pioneers, open the way for more and more influential figures to distance themselves from giving in to the accuracy of global and multilateral events and firmly question what the majority thinks, contrary to the ideas of the elite.
