Trump returns to Washington in triumphant spirits

DAVOS, Switzerland: President Donald Trump flew back to his Washington impeachment trial in triumphant spirits on Wednesday after turning the Davos forum into a victory tour for the US economy and scoffing at his Democratic opponents.

For two days, Trump was unstoppable as he ignored Davos's supposed focus on global warming and inequality. Barely mentioning climate crisis, he relentlessly touted US employment figures and GDP growth and bathed in the attention of CEOs and billionaires.

"Everybody is talking about America's unprecedented economic success. It's really the talk of the town," he crowed at a press conference organised at the last minute before departure, enabling him to give himself one more shout-out.

Wednesday morning was breakfast with a Who's Who of American CEOs -- the bosses of companies like Morgan Stanley and Apple. Tuesday evening it had been the turn of foreign corporate titans and the boss of world soccer body FIFA, Gianni Infantino, who declared Trump to be "made of the same sort of fibre" as elite athletes.

Then there was Trump´s speech on Tuesday, given top billing by Davos´s World Economic Forum for its 50th annual gathering in the Swiss mountain resort.

The hall was packed, the overflow rooms were packed, but Trump told them what he came to tell -- not the message of global togetherness and environmental healing that many of them wanted to hear.

Mocking climate campaigners as "the heirs of yesterday's foolish fortune tellers", he instead delivered a rousing defence of fossil fuel industries and said that technical ingenuity could find a solution to any problem.

"The American dream is back, bigger, better, stronger than ever before," he said. While the Davos crowd watched in adoration or, in many cases, consternation, Trump´s real audience was back home in the US Senate and in the swing states like Wisconsin that will decide his fate in the November election.

The booming economy is the backbone of that reelection campaign, with history showing that an incumbent is hard to beat at a time of strong growth. But more immediately, Trump was talking to the senators about to reconvene for a second day in his impeachment trial for abuse of office and obstruction.