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What We Know with Max Foster
Trump Touts His Accomplishments On One-Year Anniversary; Sources: Justice Department Subpoenas At Least 5 Minnesota Officials; Trump Slams E.U. Leader Ahead Of Davos Summit; Trump Takes Questions From Reporters At The White House. Aired 3-4p ET
Aired January 20, 2026 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[15:00:29]
MAX FOSTER, CNN HOST: Donald Trump marks a year back at the White House with threats on Greenland and a rambling press conference.
This is WHAT WE KNOW about it so far.
President Trump still speaking, but about an hour. He's in the White House press room to reflect on a year in office. It was exactly a year ago then
that he began this second term, upending longtime alliances and enacting policies that were previously unthinkable.
President Trump's comments today come just hours ahead of a trip to Switzerland to attend the World Economic Forum in Davos. European leaders
are waiting there for him, and they appear to be pretty frustrated about Mr. Trump's escalating rhetoric on Greenland.
Let's go straight to Kevin Liptak at the White House.
You've been there for every twist and turn of this first year.
KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Absolutely. And, you know, this press conference that the president is delivering now was, I think,
intended as something of a victory lap for the president. And he came out with a large stack of papers to kind of tick through his accomplishments of
the last year, but I'm not sure I would describe the tone as particularly victorious.
He is in something of a sullen mood, going through both what he thinks he's accomplished, but also the various grievances that he has over how the last
year has gone, including what he called his public relations people for not better delivering his economic message. The president seems sort of grumpy
that more Americans aren't feeling good about the economy than he thinks the numbers should project. He also talked about the Nobel prize, about his
inability so far to be awarded that and saying that in his view, it is in fact the Norwegian government that awards those prizes and not the Nobel
committee.
So, something of a desultory attitude from the president in this one year mark. Press conference. He has not, at least as of the last minute or so,
addressed this swirl of consternation about his attempts to annex Greenland, which is, of course, what everyone is talking about, not only in
Davos but in Europe and Washington as well. He did address NATO sort of in passing, saying that he had done more for NATO than any person living or
dead, and that his great fear was that if NATO, a NATO country, was attacked, quote, will come to their rescue. But he wasn't sure if they'll
come to ours.
Of course, it bears repeating that the only time NATO's Article Five has been invoked is when the United States was attacked on 9/11, and NATO
countries did come to the United States' defense. And so, the president really, you know, going long on this one year mark press conference. But I
think it is the swirl of controversy about his actions that is overshadowing a lot of the accomplishments, not just on Greenland, but also
on some of these domestic issues, whether it's the economy that the president doesn't feel is being managed well enough, or the question of
immigration.
And, you know, you've seen polling after poll show that Americans disagree, not necessarily with the policy, but certainly with the tactics. And I
think it was interesting in this press conference, the president acknowledged that ICE will make mistakes. And he also acknowledged that the
death of Renee Good at the hands of an ICE officer last week in Minneapolis was a tragedy. And he suggested that he didn't think that that was
something that necessarily had to have happened.
But he also said, I think sort of notably that her father was a Trump supporter and that he hoped that he still supported him. And so, I think it
all goes back to sort of this loyalty to President Trump in a lot of ways. And so we'll see if he starts taking questions at some point. That was, I
think, the hope when he came out to the press briefing room to talk to us today. He's been going for more than an hour, though, and he hasn't done
that just yet.
FOSTER: Okay. We'll let you stick with it. Kevin, thank you so much.
At the start of that news conference then, President Trump was talking a lot about Minnesota. That was clearly how he wanted to go into it. He was
flipping through these mug shots, laminated mug shots of people he said were undocumented immigrants for about ten minutes and listing their
crimes.
Sources saying the U.S. Justice Department has subpoenaed at least five Minnesota officials meanwhile. They include the mayors of Saint Paul and
Minneapolis, the state's governor, Tim Walz, and its attorney general, Keith Ellison. All officials named so far are Democrats.
Our crime and justice correspondent, Katelyn Polantz, is in Washington.
[15:05:02]
You know, his eyes on Minnesota, right?
KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Very much so. And the Justice Department is ramping up what they are doing there, Max, what
is happening in Minnesota at this very moment is the Justice Department, they are subpoenaing political officials in that state. So there's the
immigration enforcement that you were just discussing, that the president was looking toward. That is a different thing than another investigation
they are doing into apparently, the work of various public official's offices, both in Minnesota and in the cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul.
The officials that are being subpoenaed by the Justice Department, they are the Minneapolis Mayor, Jacob Frey, the Minnesota governor, Tim Walz. You
may have heard of him, given that he had run for the vice presidency with Kamala Harris against Donald Trump, the Minnesota attorney general, Keith
Ellison, as well as the Saint Paul Mayor, Kaohly Her.
This is what sources are telling us now. But there has been some confirmation at this time about these subpoenas and a little more
information about what they are seeking, its documents, that this criminal investigation is looking for right now. The Minnesota attorney general,
that's Keith Ellison. He put out a statement with a little bit more information here. He wrote that instead of seriously investigating the
killing of Renee Good, Donald Trump is weaponizing the justice system against any leader who dares to stand up to him.
He's also saying that his office did receive a criminal grand jury subpoena from the Justice Department. And that subpoena is for records and documents
related to his offices work with respect to federal immigration enforcement, but not for him personally. Everything about this is highly
irregular. His statement goes on, especially the fact that this comes shortly after my office sued the Trump administration.
So, the people who are receiving these subpoenas are trying to reframe this as something that is totally political, and it is coming at a time, Max,
where the tensions are so high in Minnesota and among the Trump administration versus the Democrats in that state. And much of it is
happening in the wake of the killing of Minneapolis resident Renee Good and the ramping up of both Justice Department activity there, as well as
immigration enforcement by the Department of Homeland Security.
FOSTER: Katelyn, appreciate it. Thanks as ever for joining us.
Across the Atlantic in Davos, U.S. allies await Mr. Trump's arrival with a mixture of shock, trepidation and defiance really, amid a crisis
threatening to rupture the world order at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland. European allies are pushing back after President Trump vowed
to hit them with new 10 percent tariffs over their stance on Greenland.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
URSULA VON DER LEYEN, EUROPEAN COMMISSION PRESIDENT: Arctic security can only be achieved together. And this is why the proposed additional tariffs
are a mistake, especially between longstanding allies, plunging us into a downward spiral would only aid the very adversaries we are both so
committed to keeping out of the strategic landscape. So, our response will be unflinching.
EMMANUEL MACRON, FRENCH PRESIDENT: As we'll shift towards a world without rules, where international law is trampled underfoot and where the only law
that seems to matter is that of the strongest.
MARK CARNEY, CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER: Canada strongly opposes tariffs over Greenland and calls for focused talks to achieve our shared objectives of
security and prosperity in the Arctic.
FOSTER: President Trump shared a private message from his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron. You saw there in the sunglasses, he's got an
eye infection, apparently.
It read in part, "I do not understand what you're doing on Greenland." Mr. Trump also shared another private message, this one from NATO Secretary
General Mark Rutte, praising the U.S. president.
Richard Quest is in Davos right now.
So, tomorrow's the big day, a day that these European leaders get a chance to get some face time with President Trump. And he's often -- you know,
those meetings often work don't they, when he works face to face. So, it could be constructive potentially.
RICHARD QUEST, CNN BUSINESS EDITOR-AT-LARGE: Oh, I think there's every possibility of it being constructive. If you believe, like Scott Bessent,
the U.S. treasury secretary, or Gary Cohn, the former national economic adviser and now vice chair of IBM, that Donald Trump takes these maximalist
positions, pushes everybody to the edge. And then compromises to where he wanted to go in the first place.
But the difficulty here is we're talking sovereignty.
[15:10:02]
And so Donald Trump would have to find -- and they'd have to be able to cobble together some arrangement. Now, is that possible? Yes, of course.
But just remember, Max, last week you had the Danish and Greenlandic foreign ministers meeting vice president at the White House. That meeting
comes to an end. The U.S. -- the Danish delegation goes away thinking, okay, we've agreed to talk more. The U.S. comes out saying technical --
(CROSSTALK)
FOSTER: We are going to cross the -- sorry, we're going to come back to you, but we're going to cross the White House because the president's
taking questions.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I did.
REPORTER: -- that seem to play especially in Venezuela.
TRUMP: A big role. I like him.
REPORTER: And another one because the --
TRUMP: Are you from Brazil?
REPORTER: Yes. The E.U. and Mercosur just signed a trade agreement this weekend, which is going to be the biggest trade zone -- free zone in the
world.
TRUMP: Right.
REPORTER: At the moment, you talk a lot about tariffs. What is your reaction to that? So, two questions to --
TRUMP: Well, look, I just think this. I think we have trade like we've never had before. We're doing better on trade than we ever have before.
We're not being ripped off by every country in the world like we were before. We're doing -- we're doing numbers that nobody's ever thought
possible.
We're the richest we ever were. It's because of tariffs and the proper use of tariffs. And we're also the most secure. As an example, Iceland without
tariffs, they wouldn't even be talking to us about it. So we'll see what happens. I think it's going to work out quite well.
REPORTER: Mr. President --
TRUMP: Yeah. Right behind you.
REPORTER: Thank you, Mr. President. How would you characterize your relationship with Emmanuel Macron and Keir Starmer right now? And have you
spoken to them since your Truth Social post?
TRUMP: No, I haven't, but I think I get along very well with them. I mean, they always treat me well. They get a little bit rough when they're -- you
know, when I'm not around, but when I'm around, they treat me very nicely.
And, you know, I like both of them. They're both liberal. They've got to straighten out their countries. You can't -- you know, London is having a
lot of problems. And if you look at Paris, got a lot of problems.
They have two problems, immigration and energy. They got to stop with the windmills and they got to go back like, U.K. has an unbelievable asset
called the North Sea. Norway uses it, makes a fortune. They have a better section of it and they don't do it.
They could straighten out their countries and it would be good. But I get along very well.
Go ahead.
REPORTER: You told Norway's prime minister --
TRUMP: Are you from Norway?
REPORTER: No.
TRUMP: You look like you would be. But she looks like she's from Norway. Go ahead.
REPORTER: You told Norway's prime minister that you not winning the Nobel Peace Prize, made you feel less obligated to think purely of peace?
TRUMP: Well, I lost a lot of respect for Norway, and I believe -- and I believe very strongly that Norway controls the Nobel Prize.
But you have to understand, I settled eight wars. I've had every one of those wars, every participant wrote. I didn't ask him to do it. They sent
in strong recommendations. They make recommendations for that. But I said it was no presidents probably ever settled one war. I don't know, think of
it, I did eight.
The reason I do it is because it's easy for me to do, and I didn't do it for a Nobel Prize. I did it because I'm saving a lot of lives. I'm trying
to settle the final one. I'm trying to do Russia, Ukraine.
And when Russia is ready, Ukraine is not. When Ukraine is ready. Russia is not. But they're losing 25,000 people a month on average. And I'm trying to
get that one done.
But no, I feel -- but I feel that Norway has tremendous control over who gets to the Nobel Prize, despite what they say.
REPORTER: How far are you willing to go to acquire Greenland?
TRUMP: You'll find out.
REPORTER: President Trump --
REPORTER: Thank you, Mr. President. Kevin Hassett has said that those $2,000 tariff rebate checks would be up to Congress to decide whether or
not to disburse that. Do you agree with Kevin Hassett on that, or do you think you can do that unilaterally?
TRUMP: I don't -- I don't think we would have to go the congress out. But, you know, we'll find out. The reason we're even talking about it is that we
have so much money coming in from tariffs that we'll be able to issue at least a $2,000 dividend and also pay down debt for the country.
But we do a $2,000 dividend to the people of our country would probably set a limit of, you know, income limit where it made sense. But we will be able
to make a very substantial dividend to the people of our country. I believe we can do that without Congress
REPORTER: Mr. President --
REPORTER: Last night on Truth Social, you said that the British plan to hand the base of Diego Garcia over to Mauritius and then rent it back was
an act of great stupidity. Previously, you backed that bill. Is it now your position that the deal should not go ahead?
TRUMP: Well -- I think that they, you know, when they -- originally, we're going to do it, they were talking about doing some concept of ownership,
but now they're looking to essentially just do a lease and sell it.
[15:15:05]
And I'm against that. You know, it's a reasonably nothing like Greenland, but it's a reasonably important area of the globe, not to anywhere near
Greenland. But I think they should keep it. I don't know why they're doing. Do they need money?
REPORTER: Mr. President, with your support to the Syrian government, most probably you avoided another civil war and bloodshed in Syria, especially
after the fall of the regime.
TRUMP: I did a good job. I did a good job.
REPORTER: The Syrian government the last two weeks had to use some force to implement its force on specific areas and --
TRUMP: To keep the prisoners, the terrorist prisoners, which are some of the worst in the world at bay. So, they were able to keep that.
He's working very hard, the president of Syria is working very, very hard. Strong guy, tough guy. Pretty rough resume. But you're not going to put a
choir boy in there and, you know, get the job done.
I spoke with him yesterday because we were talking about the prisons, and, you know what was going on. We have some of the worst terrorists in the
world in those prisons. And he's watching them
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: Go ahead.
REPORTER: Gavin Newsom is going to be at Davos if he's not already there, you're probably going to run into him. I presume that this is for him to
raise his platform for 2028. But what do you anticipate his foreign policy platform is going to be?
TRUMP: I don't know, I mean, I don't know that he's going to be the nominee. I know this I had a very good relationship with Gavin Newsom when
we were, you know, in office together. I was president. He was the governor of California. We had a really -- he would talk about it often. And
somewhere we just went astray.
I just -- I just hate the way California is being run. We actually have people leaving. It's never happened before, but I hate the way it's being
run.
He and I had a very good relationship. Really close to the word exceptional. But now we seem not to.
REPORTER: Thank you, President Trump. President Trump, you spoke earlier - -
REPORTER: Mr. President, you've been hearing from allies.
TRUMP: No, no.
REPORTER: Thank you. Thank you so much, President Trump. Cara Castronuova from Lindell TV.
And you spoke earlier about the 2020 election. Now that Maduro is in U.S. custody and he was criminally charged, has any more information emerge that
you could share with us regarding Venezuelan election software and Venezuelan ties to tampering with the 2020 election? And would you consider
speaking to Maduro personally in prison in New York, to get some answers on Venezuela's involvement with the 2020 election?
TRUMP: No, I don't think I would be doing that. I think my lawyers would be very unhappy if I did.
Yeah, they've learned -- they've learned some things.
Please?
REPORTER: What happens to the tariff threat to Greenland if the Supreme Court comes out and rules against you on tariffs? And --
TRUMP: Well, I'll have to use something else. I mean, look --
REPORTER: Will you use force?
TRUMP: You know, take a look at the word license, take a look at other things. I mean, we have other alternatives, but the -- what we're doing now
is the best, the strongest, the fastest, the easiest, the least complicated.
REPORTER: Mr. President, if you move ahead with the Greenland related tariffs on Europe, you secured almost $1 trillion of commitments from them
to invest in the United States. Does that go put out the window if that happens?
FOSTER: I doubt it. Look, they want -- they need that agreement very badly with us. They really do. They fought very hard to get it. So, I doubt that.
But we'll see what happens.
We have a lot of meetings scheduled on Greenland. I'm leaving tonight. As you know, Davos. And we have a lot of meetings scheduled on Greenland. And
I think things are going to work out pretty well actually.
(CROSSTALK)
REPORTER: Thank you, Mr. President. Will you still go to Paris for the G7 emergency meeting as offered by President Macron?
TRUMP: No, I wouldn't do that. Because, you know, Emmanuel is not going to be there very long. And, you know, there's no longevity there. He's a
friend of mine. He's a nice guy. I like Macron, but he's not -- he's not going to be there very much longer, as you know. And I think, you know, I
have meetings with the people that are directly involved, not some of the people you're talking.
REPORTER: Thank you so much. Thank you so much, Mr. President. I'm happy - -
TRUMP: I've never seen this room like this. Is this a celebration of the first year?
REPORTERS: Yes.
TRUMP: Have you ever seen it? I've never seen this many. I hope we have a very good. I hope we have a very good structural floor. You know, this used
to be a swimming pool. You're sitting over a swimming pool. I could see that happening. But this. We need a good structure here, don't we, huh?
Yeah?
REPORTER: Mr. President --
REPORTER: Thank you so much, Mr. President. Happy one year anniversary.
TRUMP: Thank you.
REPORTER: And my question is on Syria. The Kurds, as the most loyal U.S. partners facing attacks by some Syrian elements within the Syrian
government.
[15:20:02]
What will you do to ensure the Kurdish rights protected on their effective forces against terrorism in Rojava, Syria, continue as the Kurdish see you
as a president does not abandon his allies?
TRUMP: Well, I like the Kurds, but just so you understand, the Kurds were paid tremendous amounts of money, were given oil and other things. So, they
were doing it for themselves more so than they were doing for us. But we got along with the Kurds, and we are trying to protect the Kurds. That's
correct.
REPORTER: Ahead of your speech in Davos, can you give us a preview of what we can expect as far as you know, laying out the plans for Americans to be
able to buy homes?
TRUMP: I think more than anything else, what I'm going to be speaking about is the tremendous success that we've had in one year. I didn't think
we could do it this fast. Think of it. It's just now 12 months. And, you know, I say it often. We have the most successful country in the world. We
have the hottest country anywhere in the world by far. And this country would have been absolutely stone-cold dead.
And I'm going to be talking about it. I'm going to be because, you know, a lot of them could use some of the advice as to what we did. They need
energy. You take a look at their energy policy. They're going to destroy themselves with what they're doing with the windmills and all the nonsense.
They need energy, help, badly, or they're going to be in big trouble and they need immigration help badly. How much longer do you want to go?
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: I have -- I have a very I have a very important call with President Erdogan, who I like -- who I like a lot. One or two more questions.
Go ahead.
REPORTER: Thank you, Mr. President.
REPORTER: Thank you, Mr. President.
TRUMP: Go ahead, please. Go ahead. Yes.
REPORTER: Thank you, Mr. President.
TRUMP: The red blouse. Go ahead.
You talked a lot at the beginning of this about the economy, some positive economic indicators. Polling shows a majority of Americans don't feel the
economy is doing well. Are you worried you're making the same mistake as President Biden.
TRUMP: No, I hope I don't make the same mistake as him. Look, I inherited a terrible -- I mean, it's a great question because we inherited a
terrible, terrible mess, between the border, between all the problems, the whole country was falling apart. And in 12 months, less than 12 months, in
12 months, we have the strongest border we've ever had. We have prices that are much, much lower than they were for the last -- we inherited very high
prices.
We inherited -- remember this -- inflation was at a historic high. We had never had inflation like that. They say 48 years, but whether it's 48 years
or ever, we had the highest inflation, in my opinion, that we've ever had.
Prices because of that were very high. I inherited -- we brought down eggs immediately. Remember the first news conference? They were screaming at me
about eggs.
I was in the position for two days and they're screaming. We brought eggs down to lower than what they were before. And by the way, they continue
that way.
We brought the prices down from when I came into office and from what Biden had way down. We're going to bring them down further. But the job we did is
a miracle. One of the reasons I'm doing this today is to explain we inherited a mess and we've made it a beautiful, beautiful picture.
Think of gasoline at $1.99 in many states, $1.99 a gallon. It was for $4.50, $5. In some cases, $6 or $7. We're at $1.99.
And energy is so big that with energy, everything else comes down. But the prices are coming way down and they're going to -- we're going to bring
them down further. But we started up here with these guys. We inherited a country that was broken. We inherited a country, and I have a very warm
spot. We've done very well with Venezuela.
And by the way, that even in itself is going to help us bring down the oil prices and the Venezuelan oil. We've taken 50 billion -- 50 million gallons
of oil. We've taken 50 million barrels of oil out of Venezuela in the first four days. We've got millions of barrels of oil left. We're selling it on
the open market. We're bringing down oil prices incredibly. And when they come down and they've already come down again, $1.99 a gallon for oil,
nobody thought they'd ever see one or two more
REPORTER: Mr. President -- Mr. President --
TRUMP: Go ahead. Go, go, go. Yes.
REPORTER: I want to ask you about Iran. Is the military option still on the table? And can you assure us that the killing in Iran has stopped? And
with regard to the peace council, which members have to pay $1 billion --
TRUMP: So, with Iran -- are you from Iran?
REPORTER: No, I cover the White House.
TRUMP: Where are you from?
[15:25:00]
REPORTER: I'm Palestinian American.
TRUMP: So, with Iran, they were going to hang 837 people, and they let it be known that and we let them know that if that happens, that will be a
very bad day for them. And they decided not to do it. They didn't hang the people.
I can't tell you what's going to happen in the future, but supposedly they've taken that off the table. But they were going to -- last week, they
were going to hang on Thursday or Wednesday. One, they were going to hang I think 837 people. And they didn't hang anybody.
So, we're just going to have to see what happens with Iran. Is the military option off the table?
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: Go ahead. I'll take your question.
REPORTER: Thank you. Thank you.
TRUMP: Go ahead. Right here.
REPORTER: Thank you, Mr. President. You promised during your second inaugural to always put America first. I'm curious, how would you winning
the Nobel Peace Prize improve the lives of average, everyday Americans? Why is this prize so important?
TRUMP: It wouldn't improve the lives of any, what -- what improved the lives of people are people that are living. I saved probably tens of
millions of lives in the wars. You know, if you add up the numbers, just -- just -- if you look at -- if you look at any one of those wars, you're
talking about millions of people, you multiply it times eight.
But when you look at India and Pakistan, that could have been 10, 15, 20 million people, could have been more than that. So, I saved millions of
people. So that to me is the big thing.
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: What?
REPORTER: You suggested a moment ago that perhaps the reason why a positive story about the economy isn't getting through is because of, you
know, bad communications people. But are average Americans wrong to still feel high prices? And how much longer does the White House hope that they -
-
TRUMP: So I think a lot of people, a lot of people are listening to the fake news a little bit, and I'm not blaming anybody. I think I blame
ourselves. I think we've done a much better job than were able to promote.
We're not promoting. We're doing a great job, and we're sort of letting the promotion take care of itself. One of the reasons I'm doing this news
conference, I think it's important we have taken a mess and made it really good. It's going to get even better.
But if you look at prices from a year or a year and a half ago, you look at the Biden prices. They were way up through the sky and, you know, they use
the word affordability. They just say affordability and they don't talk about it.
They created the affordability problem. And we have we are solving it. We have solved a lot of it.
Again, everybody agrees in this room. I think gasoline prices have come per gallon way down. When that happens, everything else comes down. But they've
come down way down.
Many of the groceries have come way down. It's all happening and it's happening strong. But if you go back a year or year and a half, two years,
take a look at those prices and look at the prices now.
(CROSSTALK)
REPORTER: Thank you, Mr. President. On Venezuela, you made a condition --
TRUMP: Where are you from?
REPORTER: I'm from Spain.
TRUMP: You made it.
REPORTER: Thank you.
You made a condition that the political prisoners should be freed. It seems that they are not being as fast as they promised in the beginning. Would
that be an issue for the current government?
TRUMP: They've agreed that they're going to let. I guess, most of them out. It depends on what they did. But they have released a lot of -- they
have a lot -- released a lot of political prisoners in Venezuela.
REPORTER: Mr. President, earlier on last year, you had mentioned -- you had indicated that you wanted to take back the Panama Canal. And we've
heard a lot about Greenland. Is that still on the table?
TRUMP: I don't want to tell you that.
Sort of -- I must say sort of. That's sort of.
Okay. One more. Yes. Blond, blue. Yes. Go ahead. Ma'am, go ahead with the blue holding the computer.
REPORTER: If a consequence of your determination to take control of Greenland is the ultimate breakup of the NATO alliance, is that a price
you're willing to pay?
TRUMP: You mean the breakup of -- it's very interesting question.
REPORTER: Of the NATO alliance.
TRUMP: So I think somethings going to happen. That's going to be very good for everybody. Nobody's done more for NATO than I have.
As I said before, in every way, getting them to go up to 5 percent of GDP was something that nobody thought was possible and pay. At 2 percent, they
weren't paying. At 5 percent, they are paying. And they're buying a lot of things from us. And they're giving them, I guess, to Ukraine. That's up to
them, but they're giving them to whoever they're giving them to. But they're buying a lot.
I think that we will work something out with NATO is going to be very happy, and we're going to be very happy, but we need it for security
purposes.
[15:30:00]
We need it for national security and even world security. It's very important.
How about it?
REPORTER: Thank you very much.
First of all, last year, you told me that you believed that the reason you won election is because God put you in this place so that you could save
the world. Looking back one year, do you feel like God is proud of the effort that you've played?
TRUMP: I do actually. I think God is very proud of the job I've done, and that includes for religion. You know, were protecting a lot of people that
are being killed. Christians and Jewish people and lots of people are being protected by me. That wouldn't be protected by another type of president.
No, I think -- I think a lot of people are very proud of the job we've done. We've had an amazing year. This has been one of the greatest years,
even some people that wouldn't necessarily love me. Instinctively, they're saying this was an incredible year. We've had an incredible year
economically.
Look at our border. Our border was a disaster. People pouring -- millions. It was an invasion into our country of a lot of very bad people, good
people too, but a lot of very bad -- people from prisons and drug dealers and gangs and horrible people, murderers, thousands and thousands of
murderers allowed into our country.
And we now have the strongest border of any country. There's probably not a country. I guess North Korea has a pretty strong border, by the way, but
there's not a country in the world that has a border like we do, and we took it from the worst border.
We had the worst border in the world. Now we have one of the strongest borders of the world.
One more, one more question.
REPORTER: You said you're confident somethings going to get worked out in Greenland. But Greenlanders have made it clear they don't want to be part
of the U.S.
TRUMP: Well, I haven't -- I haven't -- I haven't spoken --
REPORTER: What gives the U.S. the right to take away that self- determination?
TRUMP: When I speak to them, I'm sure they'll be thrilled.
(CROSSTALK)
REPORTER: Mr. President, are you committed to keeping the U.S. in NATO?
TRUMP: I've had such a good relationship. I've made it so much better, so much stronger. It's so good now. NATO is so much stronger now.
I don't agree with a lot of the things they've done, but that was done before I got there. I think NATO has been good. Sometimes it's overrated,
sometimes it's not. But we have a strong NATO.
When I came here, we had a weak NATO. We had a NATO at 2 percent, and they weren't paying. You had a nothing NATO. NATO's, whether you like it or not,
it's only as good as we are. If NATO doesn't have us, NATO is not very strong.
(CROSSTALK)
REPORTER: Thank you, President Trump.
TRUMP: Yes. No, behind you, please.
REPORTER: Thank you, President Trump.
TRUMP: Yes, go ahead.
REPORTER: I really appreciate it, sir. We've heard a long list of accomplishments from the last year. Could you cherry-pick the top three?
And then looking forward, what are your three most important priorities of 2026?
TRUMP: So, I think the building of a really powerful military has been a great achievement, and that would include the Venezuela thing. That would
include the attack on Iran and the wiping out of the nuclear threat. I think that's been really amazing, what we've done militarily.
I think what we've done in business has been incredible. We have $18 trillion coming in. Plants are being built all over the -- thousands of
plants are being built all over the country. $18 trillion is a record. No country has ever come anywhere, even close to that. I think that's a
record.
And I think that most favored nations for drugs is something that nobody thought they'd be able to get. Tariffs helped me there because the nations
would have never gone along with it if I wasn't able to say, if you don't go along with it, we're going to put a 10 or a 15 or a 20 percent tariff on
your nation. And they went along.
And our drug prices are going to come down at numbers never even seen before, never even thought possible before. So those would be three things.
Thank you. Thank you all very much. Thank you.
FOSTER: President Trump taking questions on the one-year anniversary of his second inauguration. We understand from what he said there, he's off to
speak to President Erdogan of Turkey.
Some interesting points there coming out. We were really looking for elements of Greenland, really. And he really reiterated the points that
he's made before. Something's going to happen. It's going to be good for everyone. We need it for security purposes.
And then he was asking broader questions about NATO because his genuine concerns about the, you know, new world order that might come out of all of
this. And he said NATO was stronger right now. Didn't go much further than that.
Kevin Liptak was monitoring it as well. We've also got David Sanger.
So we're going to come to you in a moment, David.
Kevin, what stood out to you?
LIPTAK: You know, I thought it was interesting when the president was asked sort of directly how far he was planning to go to assume control over
Greenland. And he said, quote, you'll find out.
So really offering no clarity to this question that has now come to consume European capitals, Washington, Davos, everyone sort of wondering about how
far the president is willing to push this.
You know, he was asked at one point directly whether he was willing to risk the breakup of the entire NATO alliance to achieve this goal. And he kind
of shrugged that off. He said that he thought this would be able to be resolved in a way that made NATO happy, that made the United States happy,
without saying specifically what that meant. Now, he did say that he expected to have many, many meetings over the coming days to discuss that.
And certainly, we've seen European leaders kind of jockeying to get in front of President Trump once he arrives in Davos tomorrow morning.
One meeting that he said specifically he would not be attending is an emergency G7 summit that the French President Emmanuel Macron, had proposed
in text message to him that the president later posted on truth social. The president saying that while he's friends with Macron, he didn't think that
he was sort of relevant enough in these discussions to make it worth his while.
And so, president, you know, I think keeping his intentions and his ambitions here vague about where all of this is heading.
You know, the other question that the president was asked that I think has also been on the minds of a lot of foreign leaders is what he views this
board of peace becoming. He was asked explicitly whether he thought it would be a replacement for the United Nations, and he said that he thought
it might be.
You know, he has always sort of questioned the relevance of the U.N. He says it has a lot of potential, but that it's not meeting that potential at
the moment. And he is sort of saying explicitly here that he might view this board, the parameters of which I think are still quite unclear as a
potential replacement to that body going forward. And remember, he has sent these invitations to dozens of world leaders, including the Russian
President Vladimir Putin, to join this panel.
It cost $1 billion for a country to be a permanent member of it, and it has led a lot of speculation that he's trying to create a replacement for the
U.N. Security Council with himself as the head in perpetuity. And he is not sort of tamping down on those speculations whatsoever. And so, as the
president now prepares both to speak to Erdogan, but also to get on his airplane to head over to Davos, I think he's leaving all of these questions
that these leaders had very much open as he prepares to discuss it with them face to face.
FOSTER: Okay, Kevin. Thank you.
David, I guess this is a negotiating tactic. If you look at his past performance, he's going into these meetings. He's going to be face to face.
He likes operating face to face with people. He's going to be able to do that in Davos. But have you -- can you work out where he's going with this
Greenland issue, this world order issue?
DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL & NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, let's separate out the two. On Greenland, you know initially when he raised this
a year ago, I thought this was sort of negotiating position. And you know, I asked him at Mar-a-Lago a year ago, would you use military force? And he
jumped in before I could even finish the question to say he'd never ruled it out. So, what are we seeing now?
You know, a year later, sort of the fruits of all of that, as the president doubles down and doubles down again. On that one, I think it's a little bit
hard for him to back off. And when we did our interview with him two weeks ago with my "New York Times" colleagues, he said he just felt
psychologically that he needed ownership, that leasing it was not enough.
But I think on the world order questions, one of the characteristics of the Trump presidency is he's very specific about what he's going to tear down.
The institutions that were created in the aftermath of World War Two and so forth, the East Wing. But he is very nonspecific about what he would
replace it with.
And in part, that's because he doesn't want to raise the opposition that that would bring about.
FOSTER: It's being tested, isn't it? Because as we understand it, President Macron wasn't going to take his invitation to appear on this
board. So, a board will appear somehow at President Trump's discretion, and he is going to create this alternative U.N. I mean, he's not denying that.
And that is what it looks like. And he's going to be the head of it.
SANGER: Yeah.
FOSTER: I mean, did you see that coming?
SANGER: Yeah. No. And I -- I'm only, you know, you've got -- got to wonder at which parts of it may be named for President Trump at some point, right,
given what's happened in the rest of Washington. You know, he's -- you could say, you know, you want to go replace the United Nations, but the
United Nations was created by treaty and, you know, had to be adopted around the world.
[15:40:00]
And so, one of the big questions is in his effort to try to gain control of these institutions, is the president willing to systematically dismantle
all of those systems that we built after World War Two, some of which were expensive, but they weren't as expensive as going into World War Three,
right?
And one of the notable things about the past 80 years is that while we've had our ups and downs and regional wars, Korea, Vietnam, the list goes on.
Many other around the world, we have not gotten into a world war, and we have not seen the use of nuclear weapons in anger. So, before you toss out
the old system, you want to make sure that you're pressure testing the new one.
FOSTER: Yeah, okay, David, thank you for that. Also, Kevin.
We'll follow all of Donald Trump's movements as he arrives in Switzerland. We'll be back in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
FOSTER: It is the final moments of trade on wall street. Stocks are down. Uncertainty surrounding Donald Trump's tariff threats on European allies
helping spark a big drop in the Dow Jones today.
Investors are seeking refuge in safe haven assets like gold and silver as the Greenland crisis escalates. The price of gold has surged to new record
highs this week, now trading at more than $4,700 an ounce.
Vanessa Yurkevich joins us from New York.
I mean, you've seen this story before. How serious is it this time?
VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS & POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. Well, this is certainly an investor reaction to what President Trump has been
messaging all weekend, which includes his desire to acquire Greenland and the ratcheting up of a trade war. President Trump just spoke for, I
believe, an hour and a half or so.
And what I was noticing, I was watching markets, you know, the Dow really stayed between 850 and 900 points in terms of the losses of the day.
[15:45:04]
I think the Nasdaq, I believe, actually fell even further. So now you have all three indexes on pace for their worst day since October of 2025.
We also know that CNN's fear and greed index has moved from greed just yesterday into the neutral position. And that is because investors for the
first time today, because U.S. markets were closed yesterday because of the holiday, investors are really reacting to all of this geopolitical
discourse and a trade war that they very much thought that they had put in the rearview mirror. Of course, President Trump now threatening a 10
percent tariff on key European trading partners, eight countries and then ratcheting that tariff up to 25 percent over the summer if these companies
get in the way of his desire to acquire Greenland.
Now, as you mentioned, investors obviously, selling off on Wall Street, but putting their money into other safe havens like gold and silver. What a
moment they are having. If you look at this six-month line chart for gold, to start with, gold has surged 40 percent in just the last six months
alone.
And then if you look at silver, we're talking about 140 percent increase in the price of silver. Now a going for over $90 an ounce, something that
people have just not seen before. Worth noting, though, that the stock market, wall street, has had a really incredible run, a really wonderful 12
months.
If you have a 401(k), if you're an investor on Wall Street, but were starting to get back into Max that volatility that we saw last year at the
beginning of the trade war, as investors are trying to shake out exactly where President Trump is going, both with what he's trying to do
geopolitically, but also if he truly is going to follow through with these tariffs.
Max, we know that President Trump often threatens tariffs, but then pulls them back. But Wall Street clearly feeling more nervous than they have been
about what is going to transpire, both in terms of geopolitics but also in terms of this trade war, Max.
FOSTER: Yeah, we'll wait to see what tomorrow brings.
Vanessa, thank you so much.
YURKEVICH: Thanks.
FOSTER: President Trump's bid to take over Greenland certainly likely to dominate the talk at this week's World Economic Forum. We'll go live to the
Greenlandic capital next for you to get a sense of the atmosphere there.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[15:50:05]
FOSTER: U.S. President Donald Trump, standing firm in his desire to take over Greenland. And that's for U.S. national security, mainly. His comments
come as global leaders prepare for his arrival in Davos at the World Economic Forum. The U.S. president has shared what appeared to be a private
text messages with French President Emmanuel Macron and the NATO secretary general. President Macron is one of those openly criticizing the
president's territorial ambitions.
Canada's prime minister also addressed the shift in U.S. policies and how its forcing his country to look for other trade partners.
Addressing U.S. threats to take over Greenland, a member of Denmark's parliament told CNN Monday it's Denmark's duty to defend Greenland if the
U.S. invades. What the country would indeed -- that the country would indeed go to war. In fact, if it came down to that.,
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RASMUS JARIOV, MEMBER OF DANISH PARLIAMENT: We will, of course, defend Greenland. If there is an invasion, by American troops. It would be a war,
and we would be fighting against each other. We know that the Americans are stronger than us, and you have a much stronger military than ours. But it
is our duty to defend our land and our people. And the 57,000 Danish citizens that live in Greenland, that have made it absolutely crystal clear
that they don't want to be taken by the United States.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FOSTER: In the last hour, Donald Trump claimed he's done more for NATO than anyone, but says he doubts whether NATO would do anything to help the
United States.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: He said it a lot. I've done more for NATO than anybody, and I see all this stuff. But NATO has to treat us fairly, too. The big fear I have
with NATO is we spend tremendous amounts of money with NATO, and I know we'll come to their rescue, but I just really do question whether or not
they'll come to ours. You know, just -- I'm just asking.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FOSTER: Nic Robertson is in Greenland's capital.
I mean, if we combine the two things that Donald Trump is saying here, it does seem very threatening to Greenland. He wants to take over the island.
NATO would have a crisis if that happened. But he's saying that NATO hasn't done enough for him anyway. So, does that make an invasion more likely?
It's very confusing
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Donald Trump really hasn't laid out what is going to do. He's saying they'll have to wait and
see. As far as how far it will go to taking over Greenland. He's saying that he's got something. He's going to have a lot of meetings in Davos,
that he's got something that's going to make NATO happy, implies it will make the people of Greenland happy.
But the language and discourse that he uses, and it's not the first time that he's said that he wondered if anyone else in NATO would come to
America's help if they needed. It really cuts deep, particularly in the military.
Speaking with the Danish commander here of the of the Joint Arctic Command on specifically this issue, the idea that NATO -- the United States -- NATO
allies wouldn't come to United States aid if they asked. The United States did ask after 9/11 and Denmark was one of those nations that has always
stepped up to support the United States. And along with lots of NATO allies, sent troops to support U.S. troops in Afghanistan. In fact, that
U.S. request was the only time that Article Five has been triggered within NATO.
So, you can sort of understand, if you will, from a military perspective, from a political, diplomatic perspective, that the narrative that President
Trump is using going into this is, is, deeply hostile and particularly hostile for Danish because their commitment for troops in Afghanistan
caused them per capita, 48 deaths total per capita. As many deaths in Afghanistan or more than the United States.
So, President Trump's comments have received here very caustically. And I think what you heard there about the defense that the Danes would put in
place to defend Greenland, that they would fire back at U.S. troops. It is within the constitution, if you will. This is the expectation and the
demand of Danish forces. It is written down. They have to follow this.
If the kingdom is attacked, they have to -- if the kingdom is fired upon, they have to fire and shoot back. So, these are some sort of the cold, hard
realities of where we are.
Again, you know, President Trump isn't saying in the open what this is that is going to make everyone happy. NATO happy, the Greenlanders happy. But
everyone here, I think, really fears for the potential worst at the moment. And that's when they listen to President Trump sort of language coming
here. Not what he's saying about the specific issue, but the language around it about President Macron not really being having a political
future. All these things that doesn't sit well.
FOSTER: Is ominous going into Davos, isn't it, Nic? We'll be following very closely. Thank you for joining us from Greenland.
Now it might look like a scene from the Arctic, but this spectacular aurora borealis lit up skies across the U.K. Would you believe last night, I
missed it. The dazzling display of solar activity was said to be the largest solar radiation storm in two decades. Stargazers were treated to a
rare red toned light show.
As you can see, if you happen to be here in the U.K. and skies are clear at your place. Cast your eyes to the sky. You may have a second shot at seeing
the northern lights this evening. We're told.
Well, I'm Max Foster. That is WHAT WE KNOW. Do stay with CNN. We'll have more after the break.
END
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