I teach on the impact that digital technology has had on protest and social change and have spoken with protestors from the 2011 Arab and Occupy movements. after I walked out, people came up to me and told me they wished they had too, and that they were sorry they hadn’t brought a shirt. Others came on WEF Fellowships and felt it would be churlish to walk out of the Trump talk. Many of the delegates have been attending WEF for years and don’t want to offend their host, Klaus Schwab. African leaders may need financial aid or trade deals. The people that went included corporate types who like his business-friendly, short term policies. Many of the people who could not stand to see Trump’s speech-including a group of union officials-left the WEF a day early or stayed in their hotel rooms.

Greed, of course played a part in the crowd’s acquiescence, but I think there were other reasons no one else protested, too: “Yesterday it was all adrenaline and today I am in shock at the way the most powerful people in the world chose greed over compassion,” Sasha Kramer wrote to me over the weekend. Including all my Swiss co-citizens who would have had an opportunity to make a statement in Davos.” Yet at the moment of the speech, no one made a gesture (although there was some booing, especially after Trump attacked “fake news”). Since Friday, I have been wondering why. Many people congratulated me, and a Swiss man even sent an email saying, “I am grateful for your turn to action when most everybody else shut up. Wearing a t-shirt and walking out of a speech at a conference in Switzerland is about the mildest forms of protest possible, and yet no one else did it.

Despite the rumors, there had been no massive boycott or walkout. They interviewed me, and I met another woman, Sasha Kramer, who had had a similar idea: she was wearing a white T-shirt that said “I stand with Haiti” and walked out during Trump’s speech. There were dozens of journalists and photographers waiting for the speech to end. Just as quickly, another guard grabbed him and told him to let go. I got outside and was grabbed immediately by a security guard who put his hand on my arm. I walked slowly out of the room, stopping to catch people’s eyes, hoping they would take pictures. What if I showed my shirt, got arrested and no one knew it had happened?Įventually, I took a breath and stood. To the contrary, much of the audience seemed supportive. I kept waiting for a sign that someone somewhere was protesting, but none came. No one was booing and no one was leaving. Trump began speaking and I looked around. I didn’t know how tough Swiss security was, whether I would be arrested or heckled, but I showed up early at the Congress Center and noticed floods of people leaving, including many who said they couldn’t stand to watch him.Īfter lining up for more than an hour, I got inside. I didn’t know what would be possible given the tight security, but finally decided to don a “not my president” t-shirt.įeeling a bit afraid, on the day of the Trump speech, I put it on-under a turtle neck.

Ever since I had heard that Trump was coming to Davos I had wondered what kind of protest I could do. I asked around but no one seemed to know. In the days leading up to Trump’s talk, there were rumors that all the African leaders would walk out together and that the Young Global Leaders would too.

Just the two of us trump