Bellwether

If you happen to go to church to mark this Ash Wednesday, look out for a sign or banner bearing an unfamiliar shape by the door.

What attendees at the Davos hug-fest saw on Friday was a calm, controlled Donald Trump, in charge of his message.

For those who despise Donald Trump for his eccentricity, his bombast, his loose grip on the truth, for his occasional use of profanity, his first group appearance at Davos should be reassuring. Why? Because he was dealing with businessmen, not politicians.

Let’s go back a few years and reset some make-believe headlines: to protest his ruinous state-run health care plan, Republican mayors announce a boycott of President Obama’s annual meeting with big-city leaders.

So, which Donald Trump will show up in Davos this week? The successful billionaire businessman? Or the blustering, boastful America First party-crasher, tracking dirty snow into the annual Swiss love-fest of globalism in the Alps?

A president, riled up, whose words really mattered. Though virtually present, a precedent shattered.

Here’s a question for #meToo and #TimesUp: If you forcibly transport a little girl across state lines to have her genitals mutilated so she will never feel sexual pleasure, is that sexual abuse?

When he travels to Davos this month Trump will have to decide whether to act like the blustery cheerleader for American business and military might, or the uninvited guest at an ultra-exclusive club who shows up without a tie.

Should he have used that word? Of course not. Was it beneath the dignity of his office? Certainly. Is he the first president to use caustic language? Don’t kid yourself.

Trump’s Department of Energy is working with Rep. Lou Barletta, a Republican representing the district where coal was once king.