Air Force One is supposed to be the easy part. You get on, you fly to Switzerland, you do the World Economic Forum. Instead, on January 20, the plane had to turn back to Washington, D.C., after electrical problems forced a scrub of the takeoff. The delay dragged on, keeping President Donald Trump on the ground until after midnight and turning a standard diplomatic trip into a long, tiring ordeal. By the time the aircraft finally headed for Europe, the schedule was a mess, and the whole trip already felt off.
What happened next wasn’t exactly subtle. As the plane dropped toward the Swiss Alps and banked for its approach, a message cut into the snow below came into view. In a yard near the landing path, someone had carved “TRUMP GO HOME” in letters big enough to be read from thousands of feet up. It was a protest that took real work—a “welcome wagon” designed specifically so the President couldn’t miss it from his window seat.
Ed O’Keefe, the CBS News senior White House and political correspondent, reported on what was obvious to anyone watching. “As the president arrived, there was an unmistakable message for him,” O’Keefe said on “CBS Mornings,” narrating the footage of the snow. He noted that “the Europeans really in recent days have expressed real anger, frustration with the United States… and are making plans to do something about it.”
US President Donald Trump was greeted in Davos by a ‘Trump Go Home’ message written in the snow as he arrived for the World Economic Forum.
The message was visible from the air. Trump is set to address the summit and meet world and business leaders later on Wednesday.#Trump… pic.twitter.com/Uc8A7tZHbG
— India Today Global (@ITGGlobal) January 21, 2026
Higher up the mountain, a different group made their point with fire. According to the Swiss outlet Watson, about 10 people hiked nearly 800 meters up steep, frozen terrain carrying roughly 450 torches. They arranged the flames on the hillside to spell out “NO KINGS,” a stark message glowing against the dark slopes.
Inside the forum, Donald Trump’s speech drifted into his usual grievances, mixing up Greenland and Iceland and complaining about NATO again. Critics online jumped on it immediately. One Threads user said, “Nobody wants his childish acting butt around them.” Another wrote that “Trump got exactly what he deserves,” suggesting he should see that kind of resistance everywhere he goes.
That set the tone for the visit. It wasn’t really about policy. It was about President Donald Trump’s ability to get under people’s skin and make himself the center of attention. Even at the VIP dinners, the mood was tense, with reports of jeering directed at Trump’s circle and European leaders like Christine Lagarde walking out early.
It’s not just politics and protest signs back in the U.S., either. In California, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom is still a constant thorn in Trump’s side, and Donald Trump’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame got hit again. Vandals scrawled “TRAITOR, TYRANT” across it in Trump’s own all-caps style. A photo of the mess went viral on Reddit.
As President Trump landed in Davos, Switzerland Wednesday morning to speak at the World Economic Forum, he was greeted by the message “Trump Go Home” written in the snow.
The president is expected to speak at the Forum Wednesday, in an address which the White House says will be… pic.twitter.com/Sk3CdXUSkN
— CBS Mornings (@CBSMornings) January 21, 2026
It doesn’t matter if it’s snow in Davos or concrete in Hollywood. The message following Donald Trump is the same: go away. For a leader who hates being ignored, the problem in Switzerland wasn’t the silence—it was that the mountains were talking back.
