That is what he is trying to do by timing his attendance at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum with the opening of his impeachment trial in the US Senate.

The Davos forum, which Trump had previously attended as an eligible plutocrat before becoming President but never been invited to address, is intriguing for many reasons.

The most notable is the WEF is not sanctioned by any government or even the United Nations; it is simply the most select, and arguably influential, club on the planet.

Most of the more than 3000 business leaders in attendance are either billionaires or millionaires many times over.

Corporate membership fees are now believed to be nudging the million dollar mark.

Attendees have come to be known by the epithet "Davos men", a term used to describe the ultrawealthy, mainly male, participants.

These, according to US political scientist, Samuel P. Huntington, have largely transcended national loyalties and view national governments as a passing fad whose role is "to facilitate the elite's global operations".

It's not an uncommon view. The WEF has also been referred to as "the NGO of the status quo" and criticised for its failure, over many decades, to contribute to solutions to the issues, such as poverty, chronic illness, debt and global warming, it highlights annually.

This year's theme is "stakeholders for a cohesive and sustainable world".

What better place then for Donald Trump to talk up the prospects of the American economy on the one hand and to launch a stinging attack on those who would seek stronger action on climate change on the other?

Both messages were clearly intended to play as strongly with his domestic supporters as at the annual convocation of "the great and the good".

It was presumably no accident that teenage climate activist, Greta Thunberg, had also been asked to speak in a pairing that would maximise coverage of Trump's remarks and her response.

There can be little doubt Thunberg was one of the targets of Trump's attack on the environmental movement.

"This is a time for optimism. To embrace the possibilities of tomorrow we must reject the perennial prophets of doom and their predictions of the apocalypse," he said.

"They are the heirs of yesterday's foolish fortune tellers. They want to see us do badly, but we don't let that happen".

He went on to equate concern for the environment and global warming with "radical socialism" and said activists were out to destroy the economy.

While all of this will doubtless play well with Trump's US supporters and, perhaps to a slightly lesser extent, with a significant proportion of the Davos crowd, it is, as he himself would say, "fake news".

We know the world is getting warmer and the consequences, some of which were foreseen as long ago as 1975 when the words "climate change" were first linked to the hole in the ozone layer, are making themselves apparent.

We have seen that in this country with both the worst drought in recorded history and the most ferocious and extensive fire season Australia has ever known.

Thunberg may well have been thinking of the Australian fires when she responded to Trump a few hours later.

"Our house is still on fire. Your inaction is fuelling the flames by the hour".

Thunberg is not the false prophet of Davos. That honour belongs to Trump and Trump alone.