Return to Transcripts main page

CNN News Central

President Trump Speaks at World Economic Forum. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired January 21, 2026 - 09:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[09:00:00]

PRESIDENT: I have tremendous respect for both the people of Greenland and the people of Denmark. Tremendous respect. But every NATO ally has an obligation to be able to defend their own territory. And the fact is, no nation or group of nations is in any position to be able to secure Greenland other than the United States. We're a great power. Much greater than people even understand. I think they found that out two weeks ago in Venezuela.

We saw this in World War II when Denmark fell to Germany after just six hours of fighting and was totally unable to defend either itself or Greenland. So, the United States was then compelled. We did it. We felt an obligation to do it. To send our own forces to hold the Greenland territory. And hold it, we did, at great cost and expense. They didn't have a chance of getting on it. And they tried. Denmark knows that.

We literally set up bases on Greenland for Denmark. We fought for Denmark. We weren't fighting for anyone else. We were fighting to save it for Denmark. Big, beautiful piece of ice. It's hard to call it land. It's a big piece of ice.

But we saved Greenland and successfully prevented our enemies from gaining a foothold in our hemisphere. So, we did it for ourselves also. And then after the war, which we won, we won it big. Without us, right now, you'd all be speaking German and a little Japanese perhaps.

After the war, we gave Greenland back to Denmark. How stupid were we to do that? But we did it. But we gave it back. But how ungrateful are they now?

So, now our country and the world face much greater risks than it did ever before because of missiles, because of nuclear, because of weapons of warfare that I can't even talk about. Two weeks ago they saw weapons that nobody ever heard of. They weren't able to fire one shot at us. They said, what happened? Everything was discombobulated. They said, we've got them in our sights. Press the trigger. And nothing happened. No anti-aircraft missiles went up. There was one that went up about 30 feet and crashed down right next to the people that sent it. They said, what the hell is going on? Those defensive systems were made by Russia and by China. So, they're going to go back to the drawing boards, I guess. Greenland is a vast, almost entirely uninhabited and undeveloped

territory. It's sitting undefended in a key, strategic location between the United States, Russia and China. That's exactly where it is, right smack in the middle. Wasn't important, nearly, when we gave it back. You know, when we gave it back, it wasn't the same as it is now. It's not important for any other reason, you know, to -- everyone talks about the minerals. There's so many places -- there's so -- rare earth. No such thing as rare earth. There's rare processing. But there's so much rare earth.

And this -- to get to this rare earth, you got to go through hundreds of feet of ice. That's not the reason we need it. We need it for strategic national security and international security. This enormous, unsecured island is actually part of North America, on the northern frontier of the western hemisphere. That's our territory. It is, therefore, a core national security interest of the United States of America. And, in fact, it's been our policy for hundreds of years to prevent outside threats from entering our hemisphere. And we've done it very successfully. And we've never been stronger than we are now.

That's why American presidents have sought to purchase Greenland for nearly two centuries. You know, for two centuries they've been trying to do it. They should have kept it after World War II, but they had a different president. That's all right. People think differently. Much more necessary now than it was at that time, however.

In 2019, Denmark said that they would spend over $200 million to strengthen Greenland's defenses. But as you know, they spent less than 1 percent of that amount. One percent. There's no sign of Denmark there. And I say that with great respect for Denmark, who -- whose people I love, whose leaders are very good. It's the United States alone that can protect this giant mass of land, this giant piece of ice, develop it and improve it and make it so that it's good for Europe and safe for Europe and good for us.

[09:05:09]

And that's the reason I'm seeking immediate negotiations to once again discuss the acquisition of Greenland by the United States, just as we have acquired many other territories throughout our history. As many of the European nations have. They've acquired. There's nothing wrong with it. Many of them, some went in reverse, actually, if you look. Some had great, vast wealth, great vast lands all over the world. They went in reverse. They're stuck back where they started. That happens too. But some grow.

But this would not be a threat to NATO. This would greatly enhance the security of the entire alliance. The NATO alliance. The United States is treated very unfairly by NATO. I want to tell you that. And when you think about it, nobody can dispute it. We give so much and we get so little in return.

And I've been a critic of NATO for many years. And yet I've done more to help NATO than any other president by far, than any other person. You wouldn't have NATO if I didn't get involved in my first term. The war with Ukraine is an example. We are thousands of miles away,

separated by a giant ocean. It's a war that should have never started, and it wouldn't have started if the 2020 U.S. presidential election weren't rigged. It was a rigged election. Everybody now knows that. They found out. People will soon be prosecuted for what they did. It's probably breaking news, but it should be. It was a rigged election. Can't have rigged elections.

You need strong borders, strong elections, and ideally a good press. I always say it. Strong borders, strong elections, free, fair elections and a fair media. The media is terrible. It's very crooked. It's very biased, terrible. But someday it'll straighten out because it's losing all credibility. Think of it, when I won in a landslide, a giant landslide, won all seven swing states, won the popular vote, won everything, and I only get negative press. That means that it has no credibility. And if they're going to get credibility, they're going to have to be fair. So, you need a fair press.

But you also need those other elements. And I inherited a terrible, terrible situation. If you look, the border was open. The inflation was raging. Everything was bad with the United States when I came into office.

But I also inherited a mess with Ukraine and Russia. Something that would have never happened. And I know Putin very well. He and I would discuss Ukraine. It was the apple of his eye, but he wasn't going to do anything. I said, Vladimir, you're not doing it. He would never have done it. It was terrible what happened. I could see it happening too. After I left, I could see it happening.

Biden had given Ukraine and NATO $350 billion, a staggering sum, $350 billion. I came in and just like the southern border, just like inflation, just like our economy, I said, wow, this place is in trouble. Meaning our country. All of these things were out of control. But the border was out of control. We fixed it. We have the strongest border anywhere in the world. And I've now been working on this war for one year, during which time I settled eight other wars. India, Pakistan. I mean, I settled other wars that were -- Vladimir Putin called me Armenia, Azerbaijan. He said, I can't believe you settled that one. They were going on for 35 years. I settled it in one day. And President Putin called me. He said, you know, I can't believe I worked on that war for ten years trying to settle it and I couldn't do it. I said, do me a favor, focus on settling your war. Don't worry about that one.

What does the United States get out of all of this work, all of this money, other than death, destruction, and massive amounts of cash going to people who don't appreciate what we do. They don't appreciate what we do. I'm talking about NATO. I'm talking about Europe. They have to work on Ukraine. We don't. The United States is very far away. We have a big, beautiful ocean separating us. We have nothing to do with it.

Until I came along, NATO was only supposed to pay two percent of GDP. But they weren't paying. Most of the countries weren't paying anything. The United States was paying for virtually 100 percent of NATO. And I got that stopped. I said, that's not fair.

[09:10:01]

But then, more importantly, I got NATO to pay five percent. And now they were paying. And now they are paying. So, something nobody said was possible. They said, we will never go up higher than two percent. But they went to fie percent. And now they're paying the five. They didn't pay the two and now they're paying the five. And they're stronger for it. And they have an excellent, by the way, secretary general, who's possibly in the room.

Mark, are you here?

Yes, he's here.

Hello, Mark.

We never asked for anything and we never got anything. We probably won't get anything unless I decide to use excessive strength and force where we would be, frankly, unstoppable. But I won't do that, OK. Now everyone's saying, oh, good. That's probably the biggest statement I made because people thought I would use force. But I don't have to use force. I don't want to use force. I won't use force.

All the United States is asking for is a place called Greenland, where we already had it, as a trustee, but respectfully returned it back to Denmark not long ago after we defeated the Germans, the Japanese, the Italians and others in World War II. We gave it back to them. We were a powerful force then, but we are a much more powerful force now after I rebuilt the military in my first term and continue to do so today.

We have a budget of $1.5 trillion. We're bringing back battleships. Battleship is 100 times more powerful than the battleships you saw in World War II, those great big, gorgeous ships, the Missouri, the Iowa, the Alabama. Because I thought maybe we could take them out of mothballs. They said, no, sir, these ships are 100 -- think of that, 100 times more powerful than those big, big, magnificent pieces of art that you saw so many times ago, that you still see on television. You say, wow, what a force. One hundred times. Each ship, 100 times more powerful than the big battleships of the past. So, that was the end of the mothball story.

So, what we have gotten out of NATO is nothing except to protect Europe from the Soviet Union and now Russia. I mean, we've helped them for so many years. We've never gotten anything except we pay for NATO and we paid for many years -- until I came along, we paid for, in my opinion, 100 percent of NATO, because they weren't paying their bills. And all we're asking for is to get Greenland, including right title and ownership, because you need the ownership to defend it. You can't defend it on a lease. Number one, legally it's not defensible that way totally. And number two, psychologically. Who the hell wants to defend a license agreement or a lease, which is a large piece of ice in the middle of the ocean, where if there is a war, much of the action will take place on that piece of ice. Think of it, those missiles would be flying right over the center of that piece of ice. All we want from Denmark, for national and international security, and

to keep our very energetic and dangerous potential enemies at bay, is this land on which we're going to build the greatest Golden Dome ever built. We're building a Golden Dome that's going to, just by its very nature, going to be defending Canada. Canada gets a lot of freebies from us, by the way. They should be grateful also, but they're not. I watched your prime minister yesterday. He wasn't so grateful.

But they should be grateful to us, Canada. Canada lives because of the United States. Remember that, Mark, the next time you make your statements.

What we did for Israel was amazing. But that's nothing compared to what we have planned for the United States, Canada, and the rest of the world. We are going to build a dome like no other. We did it. We did it for Israel. And, by the way, I told Bibi, Bibi, stop taking credit for the dome. That's our technology. That's our stuff. But they had a lot of courage and they were good fighters and they did a good job and we wiped out the Iran nuclear threat like nobody can believe. Nobody's ever seen anything like it. That, Venezuela, taking down Soleimani, wiping out al Baghdadi when he tried to reinstitute ISIS, we did a lot. We did a lot, a lot of big things. All perfectly executed. Everyone was perfectly executed.

[09:15:02]

Somebody told me that. A military expert told me, sir, everything you've done has been perfectly executed. I said, I know.

So, other presidents have spent, whether foolishly or not, trillions and trillions of dollars on NATO and gotten absolutely nothing in return. We've never asked for anything. It's always a one way street. Now they want us to help them with Ukraine. And let me say, we're going to. I'm really helping, not even them, I want to see -- last week if you saw it was 10,000 soldiers, but last month it was 31,000 soldiers died. Thirty-one thousand. That's this room times -- the number of people in this room times 30. Think of it, 30,000 soldiers died in one month. The month before it was 27,000. The month before that it was 28,000. The month before that it was 25,000. It's a bloodbath over there. And that's what I want to stop.

It doesn't help the United States. But these are souls. These are young, young people. Look like you. Look like some of you right in the front row. They go to war. Their parents are so proud. Oh, there he goes. Comes back. Two weeks later, they get a call, your son's head's been blown off.

I want to stop it. It's a horrible war. It's the worst since World War II. They keep going, they'll exceed World War II. The numbers are staggering how many people they've lost. They don't want to talk about it. Ukraine and Russia lost just tremendous amounts. And I'm dealing with President Putin, and he wants to make a deal. I believe - I'm dealing with President Zelenskyy, and I think he wants to make a deal. I'm meeting him today. He might be in the audience right now.

But they got to get that war stopped because too many people are dying. Needlessly dying. Too many souls are being lost. It's the only reason I'm interested in doing it. But in doing it, I'm helping Europe. I'm helping NATO. And I've -- until the last few days, when I told them about Iceland, they loved me. They called me daddy, right, last time. Very smart man said, he's our daddy. He's running it. I was like running it. I went from running it to being a terrible human being.

But now what I'm asking for is a piece of ice, cold and poorly located, that can play a vital role in world peace and world protection. It's a very small ask compared to what we have given them for many, many decades. But the problem with NATO is that, we'll be there for them 100 percent, but I'm not sure that they'd be there for us if we gave them the call. Gentlemen, we are being attacked. We're under attack by such and such a nation. I know them all very well. I'm not sure that they'd be there. I know we'd be there for them. I don't know that they'd be there for us.

So, with all of the money we expend, with all of the blood, sweat and tears, I don't know that they'd be there for us. They're not there for us on Iceland, that I can tell you. I mean our stock market took the first dip yesterday because of Iceland. So, Iceland's already cost us a lot of money. But that dip is peanuts compared to what it's gone up. And we have an unbelievable future in that stock. That stock market is going to be doubled. We're going to hit 50,000 and that stock market's going to double in a relatively short period of time because of everything that's happening.

But this is a good example. After giving NATO and European nations trillions and trillions of dollars in defense, they buy our weapons. We make the greatest weapons in the world, but now we're going to make them faster. Much faster. You saw that? I put a cap on the salaries and I put no buybacks, no stock buybacks, no various other things that they were doing. I mean, they were making $50 million, but it would take them three years to give you a patriot missile. I said, that's not good. My chauffeur can do a better job than that, and he makes slightly less than 50. They make big salaries. If they're going to make those big salaries, they're going to have to produce a lot faster. The good news is, we have the greatest equipment in the world. Now we're going to start making it a lot faster. They're going to build additional plants.

And all of the money that goes into stock buybacks is going to go into building plants. We're not allowing stock buybacks by defense companies any longer. They're going to build new plants to make Tomahawks, Patriots. We have the best equipment. F-35s, F-47, the new one just coming out.

[09:20:01]

They say it's the most devastating plane fighter jet ever. Who knows. They called it 47. If I don't like it, I'm going to take the 47 off it. I wonder why they called it 47? We'll have to think about that. But if I don't like it, I'm going to take that 47 off.

But it's supposed to be the stage six. It's supposed to be the first stage six plane, undetectable, like our B-2 bombers were undetectable. They flew right over Iran. They were undetectable. And they did their job and they got the hell out of there.

So, we want a piece of ice for world protection. And they won't give it. We've never asked for anything else, and we could have kept that piece of land. And we didn't.

So, they have a choice. You can say, yes, and we will be very appreciative. Or you can say, no, and we will remember.

A strong and secure America means a strong NATO. And that's one reason why I'm working every day to ensure our military is very powerful, our borders are very strong, and above all our economy is strong because national security requires economic security and economic prosperity. And we have the greatest that we've ever had.

Biden and his allies destroyed our economy and gave us perhaps the worst inflation in American history. They say 48 years. I say, forever. But I think 48 years is the equivalent to forever. Whether it's 48 years or ever, it's terrible. Costing the typical family $33,000. What they did to this country should never, ever be forgotten.

It's early, but he has to be rated as the worst president we've ever had by far. The autopen did many of the -- much of the damage. The autopen. He was the autopen president because I don't believe a sane president would have ever signed the kind of things that he signed.

But now grocery prices, energy prices, airfares, mortgage rates, rent and car payments are all coming down, and they're coming down fast. We inherited a mess, but we've done a hell of a job in 12 months.

Under my most favored nation policy for drug prices, the cost of prescription drugs is coming down by up to 90 percent, depending on the way you calculate. You could also say 500, 600, 700, 800 percent. There are two ways of figuring that.

But we have a favored nations policy that every president wanted. No president was able to get. I got it. And other nations approved it. And I had to use tariffs in order to get it because they said, no way. In other words, a pill that cost 10 percent in London costs $130 -- think it cost $10 in London, cost $130 in New York or in Los Angeles. And I'd say, boy, that's bad. Friends of mine would say, you know, we go to London, you can buy the stuff for nothing. We go all over the world, we can buy it for nothing because basically America was subsidizing every nation in the world because presidents allowed them to get away with it. It became very tough.

So, when I called up Emmanuel Macron, I watched him yesterday with those beautiful sunglasses. What the hell happened? But I watched him sort of be tough. But he was at $10 for a pill. And I said, Emmanuel (ph), and I have the -- all the big pharmaceutical companies are in total agreement. It wasn't easy, by the way. They're tough. Smart. They've been getting away with this scam for a long time. But they -- they gave it up. But they said, you'll never get the countries to approve it. I said, why is that? Because they won't. They always said, we're not paying any more. Get the rest from the United States. So, over the years they stayed the same. We just went up, up, up. And, I mean, we would pay 13, 14, 15 times more than some certain

countries would. So, I said, no, they'll approve it 100 percent. Sir, you'll never get them to approve it. I said, I guarantee it. But I actually started with Emmanuel, who probably is in the room too. And I like him. I actually like him. Hard to believe, isn't it? And I said, Emmanuel, you're going to have to lift the price of that pill to $20, maybe $30. I was think of that. That's -- that means it's a doubling. A doubling of prescription drugs. Might be a tripling. Might be a quadrupling. It's not easy. No, no, no, Donald, I will not do that. I said, yes, you will, 100 percent. He said no, no, no, you're asking me to double.

[09:25:02]

I said, Emmanuel, you've been taken advantage of the United States for 30 years with prescription drugs. You really should do it. And you will do it. I have no doubt. In fact, I am 100 percent sure you're going to -- no, no, no, I will not do it because, yes, in all fairness to him he has to double or triple because the world being a bigger place than the United States, it's not that you meet in the middle. You just have to go up some. And we come down a lot. They go up a little. We come down a lot.

So, we're at $130. They're at ten. So, they may have to go to 20 or 30. No more than that. I said, Emmanuel, you're going to be doubling or tripling. No, no, no. I said, here's the story, Emmanuel. The answer is, you're going to do it and you're going to do it fast. And if you don't, I'm putting a 25 percent tariff on everything that you sell into the United States on a 100 percent tariff on your wines and champagnes. And that's about ten times more than what I'm requesting. And you're going to do it. I don't want to go public with it, but you may make me do that. No, no, Donald, I will do it. I will do it.

It took me, on average, three minutes a country, saying the same thing, you will do it. They all said, no, no, no, I will not do it. You're asking me to double the cost of prescription. I said, that's right, because you've been screwing us for 30 years. And they said, we will not do it. I said, that's all right. On Monday morning were putting a 25, 30, 50, I gave different numbers for different countries.

This is also national security we're talking about. Can't -- not fair. We're not going to subsidize the whole world. And every one of those countries have agreed to do it.

So, one of the biggest things that I've done is the fact that we have now most favored nation. We will pay whatever the lowest price is in the entire world. So, our drug prices are going to be coming down by a staggering 90 percent. Again, you could say 1,000 percent, 2,000 percent, depends on the way you want to figure it, but we'll go with the way the fake news likes it better because it sounds -- can you imagine, a 90 percent reduction sounds much worse.

But drug prices are going to be coming down tremendously in all the nations, and I appreciate them doing it. But they did it, in all fairness, without tariffs, I wouldn't have been able to get it done. After declining $3,000 under Biden, real incomes are up in the United States by $2,000, $3,000, and even $5,000 and more. Homeownership has always been a symbol of health and vigor of American society. But that goal fell out of reach for millions and millions of people in the Biden era because interest rates went up so high. Today, I'm taking action to bring back this bedrock of the American dream.

In recent years, Wall Street giants and institutional investment firms, many of you are here. Many of you are good friends of mine. Many of you are supporters. Sorry to do this to you. I'm so sorry. But you've driven up housing prices by purchasing hundreds of thousands of single family homes. And it's been a great investment for them. Often as much as 10 percent of houses on the market.

You know, the crazy thing is, a person can't get depreciation on a house. But when a corporation buys it, they get depreciation. OK, that's something we're going to have to think about too. I don't know if too many people think about that. You buy a corporation, they buy 500 houses, they buy hundreds of thousands, they buy 500 houses, they can take depreciation. A person sweats and works and buys one house, they can't.

But homes are built for people, not for corporations. And America will not become a nation of renters. We're not going to do that. That's why I have signed an executive order banning large institutional investors from buying single family homes. It's just not fair to the public. They're not -- they're not able to buy a house. And I'm calling on Congress to pass that ban into permanent law. And I think they will.

One of the biggest barriers to saving for a down payment has been surging credit card debt. The profit margin for credit card companies now exceeds 50 percent. One of the biggest. And they charge Americans interest rates of 28 percent, 30 percent, 31 percent, 32 percent. Whatever happened to usury?

So, to help our citizens recover from the Biden disaster, all caused by this horrible president, just horrible president, I'm asking Congress to cap credit card interest rates at 10 percent for one year. And this will help millions of Americans save for a home.

[09:30:01]

They have no idea they're paying 28 percent. They go out, they're a little late on their payment and they end up losing their house. It's terrible.