Donald Trump's Davos attendance 'on hold' due to US government shutdown

Donald Trump’s planned address to global economic leaders in Davos has been thrown into doubt because of the US government shut down.

Mr Trump was expected to become the first sitting US President in almost 20 years to attend the World Economic Forum (WEF) being held in Switzerland this week.

But with his country gripped by a crisis after the government shutdown entered its third day, the White House said the planned visit was currently “on hold”.

It came after WEF founder Klaus Schwab said he hoped the President could appear in Davos on Friday as planned, and that it would “provide him even better with a global perspective."

The White House has previously said that Mr Trump would outline his "America First" stance – a move which would sit uneasily with the globalist audience associated with the annual summit and whom he took aim at during his controversial campaign for the presidency.

But Mr Schwab said: "Let's not forget he is the democratically elected president of the most powerful nation in the world.

"Without the cooperation, without the positive approach of the United States, we will not make very much progress in finding solutions. So his participation is very important."

He added: "I think what's important is that whoever is the leader of a country does not have just a national perspective, but an international perspective, a global perspective. And the presence of the president of the United States here, Donald Trump, will hopefully provide him even better with a global perspective."

Some protesters and even participants of the forum, which attracts hundreds of influential figures from the economic and political elite, are understood to want Mr Trump to stay away.

The doubts cast over his attendance are the result of the shutdown currently affecting the US government.

Hundreds of thousands of members of government staff continued to be on forced unpaid leave, or furlough, as the working week commenced on Monday.

The Republicans and Democrats in Washington are each blaming one another for the stalemate, which is the result of a row predominantly over immigration.