In a world beset by rapid social, political, economic and cultural change, Western democracies need leaders who emphasize diversity, fairness and the rule of law, said former British prime minister David Cameron.

Addressing attendees at the 2017 Schwab Impact Conference in Chicago on Thursday, Cameron hinted that such traits are not evident in U.S. President Donald Trump.

“The last time Britain had a prime minister as young as I was when I took office was in 1812, and things didn’t end so well for both of our countries,” he quipped. “Two years later, we landed on the Chesapeake Bay, marched on Washington and burned down the White House: We beat “The Donald” to it by two whole centuries.”

Asked if he had any advice for the American leader, Cameron was blunt: "I would hand him a telephone and switch off the television."

Cameron noted that his government was itself a victim of the populist political trend that helped elect Trump last year. After British voters rejected his call to remain in the European Union in 2016’s historic “Brexit” referendum, Cameron resigned his post to make room for new leadership.

Cameron defended globalization as an emerging economic regime, despite being an “inward-investment supporting conservative.” At the same time, he acknowledged that entire societies were being left behind by globalization.

“We mustn’t ditch globalization, but we must correct the course,” Cameron said. “Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.”

Politicians like President Trump are using populist frustration with globalization to make unrealistic assertions about trade, said Cameron, which could lead to destructive policies.

“Too many politicians talk about trade as if it’s a zero-sum game: If someone else is winning, you’ve got to be losing, and a country is only successful with a balance of trade surplus,” he said. “If every country has a surplus, who is left with the deficit? Mars? Venus? Our countries tried controlling trade in the 1930s with disastrous consequences.”

Populism shouldn’t be ignored, said Cameron, but addressed as a “warning sign” for traditional political institutions. Populism and other radical political movements are fueled not just by stagnant economies and high unemployment, but also by a failure of traditional values.

“We need to remake the argument all over again for the right values in our politics,” he said, while noting that the cultural change catalyzed by globalization is moving “too fast” for some people to keep up with.

Cameron noted that Western countries need to “course correct” their immigration policies to help their populations feel more secure. That course correction should not necessarily include building physical “walls” like Trump’s much-discussed barrier along the Mexican border, said Cameron, because “most immigration doesn’t happen at borders.

“Restoring faith in borders and in immigration is part of restoring faith in diversity,” said Cameron. “In celebrating diversity, we should be celebrating what we’re trying to achieve: Countries that are strong and integrated. We should be seeing just how meritocratic our societies can be. The Left needs to get behind immigration control.”

Scapegoating immigrants and other minority populations works against the strengths of modern capitalist democracies, said Cameron. “We need to oppose divisive and destructive identity politics. We’ll never evolve if we keep trying to exploit people for political gain.”

In particular, Cameron pointed out that both Left-wing and Right-wing political causes are exploiting unrest in the Middle East, Islam and Islamism for their own purposes without addressing the danger of Islamism itself.

“The Right seems to think the problem is Islam. Full stop,” said Cameron. “They believe that Muslims, Christians and Hindus cannot live together, that there’s an inevitable clash of civilizations and that is the reason behind country travel bans and immigration controls.”

The Left believes Islamic extremism is caused by poverty, or a failure of Western policies, he said, but many terrorists had middle-class upbringings, were educated in the West, and many of the worst terrorist attacks occurred long before the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“We will win when we demonstrate that our values are the best ways of delivering the peace and prosperity that all people on earth crave,” said Cameron.

The economic causes underlying populism should not be addressed by what Cameron calls “the counsel of despair,” which may call for increased government spending in hopes of stimulating economic activity, or for no changes in political or fiscal behavior in hopes that an external source of prosperity may be found at random.

Cameron says that the best solution for the record deficits and stifling debt he encountered at the beginning of his term as prime minister ended up being to “live within our means and pay our way in the world” through a series of deep cuts to government spending, followed up eventually with corporate tax cuts. The changes resulted in higher levels of employment, a burst of new business development, and growth that outpaced the rest of the European Union combined, said Cameron.

At the same time, Cameron’s Conservative government recognized that “for too many, the bottom rungs of the ladder of opportunity are broken.” Austerity measures and corporate tax cuts were accompanied by a minimum wage hike, increased spending on education and job training, and eliminating the income tax on low wage-earners.

“I’m a believer in free markets and free enterprise, but I’m also a believer in responsible capitalism,” Cameron said. “Business needs to stand up and do more, that is the next logical step of confronting doubts of global overarching economics … these are problems so large, they won’t be solved without the help of business.”

Cameron added that, though he generally supports and agrees with U.S. policies when it comes to NATO, China and North Korea, he worries about President Trump’s relationship with Russia, and is concerned that weakening or scrapping the West’s nuclear deal with Iran will lead to a nuclear Islamic state in the Middle East.

In a world of sound bites, the U.S. and its allies must cope with rogue states and potentially unfriendly emerging superpowers with thoughtful leadership and coherent messaging, said Cameron.

“How do we lead in the midst of these troubles, in a troubling world? One big problem is just having the time and space to make decisions,” Cameron said. In 1940, when Prime Minister Winston Churchill was deciding whether to defend Britain from a potential onslaught from the German Third Reich, he convened a five-day meeting with his ministers to decide whether or not to resist German invasion. “When you look at it today, no leader would have five days. He’d have five minutes.”

Cameron believes that Western values themselves already hold the best solutions to economic fairness, populism, isolationism, terrorism and rogue states.

“Freedom delivers the innovation and creativity that can drive our countries to be successes once again,” said Cameron. “Commentators tell us that in order to succeed, we need to be more like someone else. We should say no to that, we don’t need to be more like someone else, we need to be more like us: The real us: The guardians of freedom, tolerance, equality of opportunity and of justice. Those are what really made America, and for that matter Britain, Great. If we believe in them, we can really be great again.”