Soros
© Luke MacGregor / ReutersGeorge Soros
Billionaire investor George Soros says the Trump administration is "a danger to the world," and the opposition the president has garnered will make him a "temporary phenomenon" which "will disappear in 2020 or even sooner."


Comment: Is this a prediction, a threat or both?


During a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Thursday, Soros, 87, who heads the Soros Fund Management and Open Society Foundations, slammed President Donald Trump and his leadership, CNBC reports.

While laying into Trump, who is also in Davos for the forum, Soros mentioned the current drama unfolding between North Korea and the US.

The billionaire said Trump's handling of the situation with North Korea is moving the US towards nuclear war, because it is unwilling to accept North Korea as a new nuclear power.

Soros added that US actions against the small Far East country "creates a strong incentive for North Korea to develop its nuclear capacity with all possible speed." Such a rapid development could "induce the United States to use its nuclear superiority preemptively, in effect to start a nuclear war to prevent a nuclear war."

Soros called this possible move by the US "a self-contradictory strategy," CNBC reports. However, Soros didn't stop there on the dangers of Trump's presidency.

"Not only the survival of open society but the survival of our entire civilization is at stake," he said, CNBC reports. "The rise of leadership such as Kim Jong-un in North Korea and Donald Trump in the United States have much to do with this."

Soros even gave his advice on how to thwart a nuclear war by suggesting a "carrot and stick" approach, in which North Korea is rewarded by the US for holding off on developing its nuclear weapons further than it already has.

Soros also predicted that Trump's stint in the White House may not last a full term. "Clearly I consider the Trump administration a danger to the world," Soros said. "But I regard it as a purely temporary phenomenon that will disappear in 2020 or even sooner."

The billionaire investor said he expects a "landslide" win by the Democrats in the 2018 midterm elections, the Straits Times reports.

Earlier this month, Soros said the European Union is on the verge of collapse, and said he believes Russia is becoming "a resurgent nationalist power."

Late last year, one left-leaning political group backed by Soros called MoveOn was planning a nationwide "take to the streets" protest in the event Trump fired special counsel Robert Mueller before Christmas. Mueller is overseeing the probe into alleged ties between Trump and Russia leading up to the 2016 presidential election.

The announcement came even after Trump said he was not considering such a move.