Return to Transcripts main page

The Situation Room

Trump Addresses World Leaders at Davos; Trump Renews Demand for Greenland, Slams Denmark as Ungrateful; Trump Slams U.S. Leaders by Name in Davos Address. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired January 21, 2026 - 10:00   ET

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

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- to China in April.

[10:00:01]

How do you see the U.S.-China relationship moving forward? Are you able to combine this tough competition with also collaboration?

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: So, I've always had a very good relationship with President Xi and with President Putin. We talk about, you know, the larger powers. But I've always had a very good relationship with President Xi of China. He's an incredible man. What he's done is amazing. He's highly respected by everybody. And I do now. I mean, now, I have good -- it was very severely interrupted by COVID. I used to call it the China virus, but he said, do you think you could use a different name? And I decided to do that. Because why should we have a problem over that? But I would do that and they would --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're a true diplomat, huh?

TRUMP: I was -- I became a diplomat for the first time. Well, you know, who taught me that? Marco Rubio. He said, let me teach you about diplomacy. Any guy that gets approved by 100 percent of the votes, think of it, he got liberal Democrats and radical right Republicans to approve him. He is the only one. The next one was sick, like lost 45 votes, right? But he got all 100 votes voting for him.

And at first I wasn't happy about it. I said, wait a minute, I don't like that. And now it turns out that the Democrats probably wish they didn't do that. And Marco has been fantastic. Marco, stand up, please. You have done a great job as secretary of state. He's going to go down as the best secretary of state. And Scott, and we have Susie, who's the first female chief of staff and she's the best chief of staff too. And I see Howard Lutnick, who I know spoke and Howard's fantastic. Some of the deals we're doing are great.

And I want to pay particular attention because we have Chris, and Chris, you got up and spoke, I think. You were. He's the number one oil man in the world, because I was going to put Doug Burgum, who's fantastic. I don't know if Doug's here. Is Doug here? Doug Burgum is fantastic. He said, sir, there's one man better than me, and he introduced me to Chris, and he turns out to be.

So, we're drilling more oil and gas now than we ever have by almost double. Is that right, Chris? And on top of it, we got a lot coming out of Venezuela. So, anyway, so we're doing great. The country is just doing great. We have great people. Thank you.

And I see other people. We have Steve Witkoff, we have Jared. I got so many people. I'm in trouble because when I go back, there are going to be people with long faces, sir, you didn't introduce -- but I got so many people. And we have a lot of the greatest people anywhere in the world. I know them all. So, I won't continue because we'd be here all day.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, Mr. President.

We also know that you're a dealmaker and then maybe coming back to Greenland and Ukraine. What kind of deal in the end you see between the U.S. and Denmark?

TRUMP: Well --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because, you know, I guess you see it now as a negotiation going on or --

TRUMP: Well, it's costing Denmark hundreds of millions a year to run it. And Denmark's a small country and they're wonderful people, but, you know, it's very expensive. It's a very big piece of ice. And it's very important, and, I mean, I don't want to repeat the speech, but it's very important that we use that for national and international security. That can create a power that will make it impossible for the bad guys to do anything against the perceived good ones.

And it's a great bloc for Europe. Just like, you know, Denmark was supposed to spend hundreds of millions of dollars. They didn't spend the money, they didn't spend anything almost. And we'll see what happens.

I just say this, NATO has treated the United States of America very unfairly. We never asked for anything. We never got anything. We actually took care of the needs of NATO for years and years, which I felt was always unfair. So, I got NATO to pay because they're rich countries. But I think it's time that NATO step up. We're helping them with Ukraine. Without us, I think Putin would have gone all the way. I think we have it.

I think Putin -- I think that could have been a World War III, if you want to know the truth. If Kamala was elected or Joe, any one of those, you know, those thinkers, I think you could have ended up a World War III.

And I will say Steve Witkoff has been dealing incredibly with -- but we're not going to have World War III. We want to get it stopped. But we're not going to have World War III. I think if I wasn't elected, I think that could have evolved into World War III. It was a very, very bad situation, and it still is. But it's not that kind of bad. It's bad because so many young people are being killed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How close do you think there is on an agreement on Ukraine? [10:05:02]

I had the pleasure of speaking with Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner yesterday. I know they're working hard on it. I know that they're also traveling now. Do you see this very close or still --

TRUMP: Well, I hate to say it. I thought that was going to be. So, I settled eight wars-plus. And I thought that was going to be one of my easier ones. Not the easiest. Some I settled in a matter of hours, because I'm good at that stuff.

You know, the United Nations should be doing this. I shouldn't be doing it, but it doesn't matter. It's got to get done, saving a lot of lives. We're saving millions of lives.

With Ukraine, Russia, there's tremendous hatred between President Zelenskyy and President Putin. That's not good. That's not good for settlements, we know from dealing this abnormal hatred. With that being said, I think Russia wants to make a deal. I think Ukraine wants to make a deal. And we're going to try getting a deal done. We're getting -- I think, Steve, I think I can say that we're reasonably close.

Now, what happens is, oftentimes, we'll have a deal with Russia, Russia's set, and President Zelenskyy will not do it. You saw that when he was in the Oval Office. I was not happy. And then we'll have President Zelenskyy wants to make a deal and Putin doesn't want to make the deal. It's a very difficult balance. It's big time and it's just -- it is -- you know, to use a word, it's a bloodbath. It's horrible what's happening. It's a drone war. The drones are killing, you know, thousands of people a week, thousands. We have to get it stopped.

So, I believe they're at a point now. I'm going to meet with President Zelenskyy later today. I believe they're at a point now where they can come together and get a deal done. And if they don't, they're stupid. That goes for both of them. And I know they're not stupid. But if they don't get this done, they are stupid.

So, I don't want to insult anyone, but you got to get this deal done. Too many people are dying. It's not worth it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: President Sisi is sitting on the first row here. He spoke earlier today, and also complimented you on the Gaza deal. I think there will be a signing tomorrow. Of course, there are different views on this, but there -- how important do you think this signing is on the Board of Peace? And do you think this is going to sustain? Do you think we now will see Gaza reconstructed and the billions of U.S. dollars invested?

TRUMP: I do. I mean, I think we have peace in the Middle East. There are some little situations like Hamas and Hamas has agreed to give up their weapons. Now, you know, they were born with a weapon in their hands, so it's not easy to do. When they were born, they were born with a rifle in their hand. It's not an easy thing for them, but they -- that's what they agreed to. They've got to do it. And we're going to know, Jared, over the next two or three -- certainly over the next three weeks, whether or not they're going to do it. If they don't do it, they're going to have -- they'll be blown away very quickly. They'll be blown away.

You know, we have 59 countries that are part of that whole peace deal, and some of those countries aren't even in -- they're near the Middle East but they're not in the Middle East traditionally. And they want to come in and take out Hamas. They want to come in. They want to do whatever they can. There's a problem with Hezbollah in Lebanon. And we'll see what happens there. But that's a problem. But there are these little flames.

But there's peace in the Middle East now. Had we not gone in and knocked out with those big beautiful -- we just ordered 25 brand new ones, the latest and the greatest, the B-2 bomber. Think of them. They went in there at 2:00 in the morning with no moon, no light, no nothing. And every single one of those massive bombs hit its target, a hundred thousand pound bombs hit its target, every one of them. And then on top of it, from a submarine, 300 miles away, we hit the sites with Tomahawks, which is an unbelievable weapon. So, you know, we did our job. If we didn't do that, you would've never had peace in the Middle East.

And the countries, like Saudi Arabia, UAE and Qatar, could never have -- and others could never have signed anything because you would've had this dark cloud. And the dark cloud was Iran with nuclear. Iran would -- if we didn't take them out, they would've had a nuclear weapon within two months. They were very close to having the nuclear weapon and we hit them hard. And it was a total obliteration. They may try again, but they're going to have to try from a different area because that area was obliterated.

Incredible thing we did. And because we did that, we were able to make peace. If we didn't do that, I would say, Jared and Steve, if we didn't do that, there was no chance of making peace because the countries I just named and other countries could have never signed off. They were afraid. They were afraid. We had a bully. The bully was Iran, the bully of the Middle East. They used to call it for years. They were the bully of the Middle East. They're not the bully of the Middle East anymore.

[10:10:00]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, I know you even had to change plane last night. So, I guess you didn't have much sleep, but I think you're --

TRUMP: I didn't.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But your energy is still there. I know you have several bilateral meetings. I know you're also hosting a reception. So, thank you so much for coming back to Davos. Thank you so much. It's highly appreciated.

TRUMP: Well, thank you very much. Thank you everybody very much.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Thanks very much for joining us. We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and indeed around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer along with Pamela Brown. You've been watching all these situations unfold. We're here in The Situation Room watching the president of the United States speak at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

And let's begin this hour with the breaking news, and there's significant breaking news. President Trump standing before the world and putting it on notice. He's not backing off at all in terms of his ambition to take control of Greenland but says it will be through negotiation.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: And just minutes ago he wrapped up his much anticipated speech at the World Economic Forum. He delivered his clearest statement, yet that he will not use military force to seize the Danish territory but reiterated his desire to take over Greenland. He also slammed the NATO military alliance and American allies, calling his demand for Greenland a, quote, small ask.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: 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, okay? Now, everyone's saying, oh good. That's probably the biggest statement I made, because people thought I would use force. 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.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: We're covering all the angles of this very important developing story. CNN Anchor and Chief White House Correspondent Kaitlan Collins is on the scene for us in Davos. CNN International Diplomatic Editor Nic Robertson is in Greenland.

Kaitlan, let me start with you. The president spoke for more than an hour, and now he's been answering some questions. What stood out to you from the speech and what is he going to do next?

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, and I'm standing right outside the room where the president just spoke. These guests that are coming out behind me are people who were just listening to the president's speech here at Davos as he was addressing those at the Congress Center. So, we'll see if there's anyone notable inside this group that is coming out to get their reaction to what they made of what President Trump had to say.

But I think he kind of set the tone, Wolf, as soon as he got on stage where he greeted not only his friends but his enemies, and then moments later cut to the heart of something that has roiled this entire conference year in Davos, which were the president's comments yesterday when it came to Greenland. The president said today that he wants to immediately start negotiations to seek the U.S. acquisition of Greenland, but he also made his clearest statements yet, Wolf, saying that the United States, he does not plan to take Greenland using military force to do so.

Now, of course, that is something that's been raised. The president was saying that if the United States wanted to, they could, and he also invoked the relationship between Denmark and the United States in the 1940s, amid World War II, when the United States was putting bases on Greenland, as Denmark was occupied by the Nazis. And the president was basically citing that as a reason why he believes the United States has rights to Greenland as he was making the case for why the United States should have it.

I'll tell you, Wolf, there was a little bit of laughter in the room at some point as the president's remarks first got underway. That all changed though after he started to delve into the Greenland territory. Then he also ripped NATO and said that the United States has only used NATO to protect European countries from the Soviet Union, now from Russia. He also was highly critical of one of the United States' top allies, Canada, criticizing the prime minister, Mark Carney, for his speech that he gave, basically saying that they need to make themselves independent from the United States. He said that Canada only has its lives because of the United States.

And so, obviously, a lot of loaded remarks there from President Trump as he was addressing these world leaders who were gathered here. And a lot of the policymakers who were here, and the president naming some of them specifically there, Wolf.

BLITZER: Yes, I've heard a lot of speeches from American presidents at this World Economic Forum in Davos. I've never heard an American president specifically blast individual NATO allied leaders by name, Emmanuel Macro of France, for example, Mark Carney of Canada among others, he really went off against them. And he also went off at NATO, saying NATO has never really done anything for the United States. The United States has always been treated unfairly by NATO. And then he said Denmark cannot really ensure the security of Greenland because it simply can't.

[10:15:06]

He was very critical of all these NATO allies. I've never heard a president speak at Davos along those kinds of lines. It was pretty significant. Pamela?

BROWN: And it was. And, of course, he didn't mention the fact that the only time Article 5 was invoked was after 9/11 and the War on Terror. And many of these countries, including Denmark, sent their soldiers in to fight, right, to fight on behalf of the American states and the War on Terror in places like Afghanistan. In fact, Denmark lost -- is one of the highest per capita losses of soldiers in that war compared to other countries. So, that context was missing when he said that NATO has never done anything for the United States.

I want to bring in our Nic Robertson and hear what you thought about this speech and what are you hearing there on the ground in Greenland about it? NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, there's a lot to break down in there, isn't there? Because on the one hand is saying to the people of Greenland, I'm not going to invade you and take you by force. And I've talked to people here and they say, okay, that's something, but can we really trust this U.S. president? I think trust is low there. But he's still saying a thing that all the people of Greenland are, the vast, vast majority, are absolutely opposed to. He still wants to take control of Greenland. Immediate negotiations is what he's talking about. People here don't want that. So, they're still living with a very real threat of something happening that is against their wishes.

And then the other thing that people have told me here is, well, how much are the Europeans going to back us up? And this has sort of been a background concern that had been sort of put to one side, if you will, because the support coming from Europe had been very, very strong. But people here have listened, as we all have, to the president berate Europe as a whole, that it's going backwards, that it can't be anything without the United States, essentially saying, Europe, you really are going to have to roll with me on this, berating, as we've been saying, individual leaders, Emmanuel Macron, Macron, by the way, who has asked for NATO to step up its military training here around Greenland, involving the warship behind me here, as part of a signal and a show of how NATO can provide security around Greenland, that it doesn't have to be owned by President Trump to do that.

So, this really sort of gives people here in Greenland cause for concern because their strongest allies are being berated and belittled by President Trump and that says to them, well, are they going to stand up against that? And so far, we understand --

BLITZER: All right. Nic, hold on for a second. President Trump is answering some questions from the news media there. I want to listen in.

REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE) in South Africa?

TRUMP: Well, we have seen the numbers. We've seen the records, and it is taking place.

(CROSSTALKS)

BLITZER: All right. So, there you see the president, he's walking away from where he was speaking for well more than an hour at this Davos economic forum in Switzerland. Now, he's moving on. Kaitlan Collins, we heard from her, Nic Robertson.

Christiane Amanpour is with us as well, our chief international anchor. Christiane, what was the most notable thing that you heard in this speech by the president?

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Well, Wolf, as you've all said, you know, this was an hour and 12 minutes just about of the usual, sort of Trumpian discourse on script, off script, talking about all sorts of different things. But, clearly, as we all know, the biggest sigh of relief would have come after he made that statement that you've all read out, that I don't want to use force, I don't have to use force, I won't use force.

So, the immediate threat of a blue on blue, in my words, war in Europe, i.e. NATO against NATO over Greenland appears to have been put aside for the moment by President Trump.

Now, the next thing is there are going to be an economic war. Because when he says, I want to start discussions with all our partners immediately on the acquisition of Greenland, that is a sort of a follow-up or a preamble to what he's already done, which has threatened economic tariffs on Britain and other European nations that doesn't want to go into this business of trying to offer Trump, you know, the issue of Greenland. So, that -- he didn't mention tariffs in this speech. So, is there going to be some kind of economic punishment towards those Europeans if they don't come up with the goods?

[10:20:06]

And for his part, the goods mean giving us control of Greenland.

You know, he distorted history a bit when he talked about owning Greenland back in the Second World War. It wasn't owning Greenland. It's very true that the Americans stepped up their military presence there and at the height of the Cold War, but it was always in treaty with Denmark and that sort of, you know, went its way when the Cold War ended. So, yes, there are security issues.

BLITZER: Christiane --

AMANPOUR: The Europeans --

BLITZER: Christiane, hold on for a second. I hate to interrupt, but Kaitlan Collins has got some news. Kaitlan, you got a guest?

COLLINS: Yes. Well, thank you so much for standing obviously outside the room. And I would love to know what you thought of the president's speech given you are obviously a very prominent U.S. policymaker? And what did you make of hearing it from the U.S. perspective, given so many of the European friends that are in the room.

AL GORE, FORMER U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: Well, I think it was a classic Trump performance. I would hate to be the fact-checker that had to go through that speech, but I think there was one element of the speech that I would interpret as a positive. I think perhaps because of the stock market's reaction yesterday, he had appeared to back down from his previous threat to use military force to acquire Greenland. And if I'm interpreting that correctly, I think that's a good thing. It was, of course, crazy that he would do such a thing in the first place, but I think he backed down and that's good.

COLLINS: So, you directly tie him making the clearest statement yet that the United States is not going to use military force to take Greenland, you think that's because of what happened in the stock market yesterday? GORE: Oh, I can only speculate. I can't -- I don't know what's inside his mind. It would be quite something if I could see inside his mind. But many people have speculated that the bond market and the stock market really have a lot of influence on him. And when it goes down almost 900 points, and people do interpret it as a sell America trade, that may well have been the reason he backed down.

It may have also been that a lot of people who are close to him who are more tethered to reality and convinced him that he had made a mistake.

COLLINS: And can I get your take on what the president had to say about essentially when Denmark was being occupied by Nazi Germany and the United States was putting military bases on Greenland? He was essentially arguing that the United States has a right to Greenland. Is that how you see it as a former vice president?

GORE: No, not at all. You know, when the United States was attacked on 9/11, Denmark immediately responded as part of NATO and had more per capita casualties than any other member of NATO defending the United States against an attack.

NATO has been a tremendous foreign policy achievement for the United States as our effort to build up other alliances to establish the rule of law, a rules-based order. All of that has been benefited the United States enormously. And to try to take a wrecking ball to these alliances, the way he took a wrecking ball to the East Wing, is literally insane.

COLLINS: He argued that it would actually make NATO more secure. Is that how you see it?

GORE: No, of course not. It's ridiculous.

COLLINS: Thank you so much.

GORE: Thank you. Thank you all.

COLLINS: Wolf, obviously, you just heard from the former vice president, Al Gore, talking about his view of the president's -- his view of the president's speech and what he thought they're arguing, pushing back on what the president was saying, as he was making the case for why the United States should acquire Greenland, something that he says he's seeking immediate negotiations on that front.

BLITZER: Yes. And you made some very important points there to the vice president, Kaitlan, the president, President Trump, saying that the United States should have kept, his word, kept Greenland after World War II. It was a mistake to let Denmark take over Greenland. He said, it's the U.S. alone that could protect Greenland. And then he went on and on and on and said that the U.S. has been treated very unfairly over these many years by NATO. And it was really, really a very, very powerful attack against U.S. allies, the NATO alliance. It was really a spectacular in terms of what he was trying to say, what he was trying to do, something that we've never heard an American president do at an international economic forum like the one in Davos that has held every year. I just wanted to get your thought.

COLLINS: Yes, Wolf. Obviously, it was an extraordinary criticism by the president there against NATO and his very -- it's actually his genuine view of how he sees this, that he believes NATO benefits because of the United States and the United States does not benefit because of NATO. And that is a longstanding belief that he's had ever since we were at that NATO meeting with the other world leaders in Brussels during his first term, Wolf, you'll remember it well, where the president was threatening to pull the United States out of NATO should they not up their defense spending in their own countries, or as the president puts it, pays their bills, something he repeated in that room and then later said that a lot of the people in there didn't want to make eye contact with them.

[10:25:07]

And he named a few leaders. Some of them are not here, including the French president who was here but has departed by now. And as the president was making that case, obviously, Wolf, he was saying that he does believe the United States would come to a NATO allies defense, but would say he does not believe vice versa has happened.

Obviously, as the former vice president just pointed out, the only time the Article 5 of NATO has ever been invoked was after 9/11, after the United States was attacked. And, obviously, Denmark was a part of that and did have soldiers who served in Afghanistan and in the Middle East.

BLITZER: Kaitlan, you're there and you got a lot of world leaders who are going to be surrounding you pretty soon. I know you're going to be speaking to some of them, and I want to listen to hear what they have to say, their reaction to President Trump's speech. And it was it was a very, very strong speech and a lot of it sounded like he could have been giving a political speech back at home here in the United States, going after, for example, the former president, Joe Biden, and the Democrats, and speaking about how powerful and wonderful he has been during his first four-year term, and now during his first year of his second term. It was almost like a political speech in Davos. What did you think?

COLLINS: Yes. And, Wolf, the White House had been touting this speech as a key economic speech where the president was going to lay out his vision. He was going to talk about affordable housing inside the United States. He didn't really delve much into that, certainly not breaking a lot of new ground on that front, though he did talk about it briefly. He also repeated his claims, his false claims, that the election in 2020 was rigged. He talked about why he is back here as president now, in this time. He claims prosecutions are coming in the United States related to election fraud. Obviously, we have not seen that yet from his own Justice Department. But that is the president's argument that he was making there. He also went after officials in Minnesota and the allegations of fraud there that have broiled officials, there referencing the treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, as well is working on that.

So, yes, well a lot of key political points that the president was driving home, once that we often hear him use in those political speeches back at home as he was speaking here at Davos to a lot of world leaders, Europeans, policymakers, and obviously one former vice president as well.

And I will tell you, Wolf, another person I saw in the room that we're also looking for out here was the California governor, Gavin Newsom. The president referenced him specifically, actually called him a good guy, even though they have certainly been at odds. I looked over and I saw Governor Newsom during those remarks. He was grinning basically as the president was invoking his name. He came here earlier this week and was very critical of European leaders, saying he believes that they are capitulating to President Trump.

BLITZER: All right. If you grab Gavin Newsom, let us know. We'd love to hear, get his official reaction to what's going on. Pamela?

BROWN: All right. I want to get back to our Christiane Amanpour to get some more thoughts and analysis from you, Christiane, because we were talking about Greenland before. And it struck me that the president was laying out his argument that, look, this is a small as from the United States. Look how much we have done for NATO. NATO hasn't done anything for us, basically, come on, you should get on board with this, glossing over the fact, the very important fact that the only time Article 5, which is an attack on one is an attack on all NATO, was invoked after 9/11, and these countries came to the defense of the U.S. And I wonder what you make of the president's justification here laying out NATO and why they should give Greenland to him essentially?

AMANPOUR: Well, first of all, it's not NATO to give Greenland, you know, to the president or to the U.S. It's Denmark, a sovereign state. So, he conflates quite a lot of things, as you point out. But I think the headline, frankly, is, at least for this day, in this speech, is that President Trump did not seek to trash NATO other than his, you know, verbal slings and arrows. But he said that we are, you know, 100 percent by behind NATO. A strong America means a strong NATO. He didn't seek to do what he did in his previous presidency years and his previous speeches, which was to threaten to pull out of NATO. That did not happen.

He also moved aside for the moment the unprecedented concept that a NATO nation, the United States of America, could go to war with other NATO nations in defense of Greenland. That's gone for the moment, according to what the president said. However, he also did not address, as I was trying to say before, the issue of tariffs, which has got the Europeans really upset and caused a lot of back and forth between Europe and the United States at the beginning of this week when Trump seemed to say that unless you, you know, follow me and help me acquire Greenland, I will slap these tariffs on you.

And that caused a massive, massive problem here. You had, you know, leaders who never say anything bad in public about President Trump, calling it abusive, calling it reckless. You had the Belgium prime minister, you know, at NATO -- I'm sorry, at Davos yesterday, saying, you know, the time has run out for us to choose between being, you know, a happy vessel and --