America's Talking - Trump says Greenland deal underway despite few details

Episode Date: January 23, 2026

(The Center Square) – President Donald Trump said Thursday a deal structure regarding Greenland is developing after he stepped back from threatened tariffs on European allies, which he previously linked to Denmark handing over control of the semi-autonomous Arctic island. Danish officials say Greenland's sovereignty is non-negotiable. Trump, however, asserts that an agreement is being worked on, but he gave no additional details. This all unfolded around President Trump's visit to Davos for the World Economic Forum.Support this podcast: https://secure.anedot.com/franklin-news-foundation/ce052532-b1e4-41c4-945c-d7ce2f52c38a?source_code=xxxxxx Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Good afternoon and welcome to America's Talking. My name is Morgan Sweeney. I write for the Center Squares National Team and report here in Washington, D.C. And joining me today is Brett Rowland, who also writes for the national team. Welcome, Brett. Thank you so much for having me. We're talking about Greenland today, though. So there was this big meeting of world leaders in Switzerland. Tell us, set the stage for it. here. Tell us what's going on and then I'll fill you in on what happened with Greenland. Sure. So this week was the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum. It happens in a little Alpine town in Switzerland. And it was actually the biggest world economic forum that they've ever had. It was in its 56th year. There were 3,000 cross-sector leaders from over 130 countries. 400 top political leaders, leaders in business. And President Trump attended with a small delegation of people from the U.S.,

but it was actually the biggest U.S. delegation that's ever gone to one of these meetings ever. So that was also unique. And, yeah, like you mentioned, kind of the big question mark on everybody's mind, with Trump attending was, is he going to talk about Greenland and what is he going to negotiate while he's there? Because he's been saying, especially recently, that the U.S. needs to acquire Greenland for national security reasons. And he's really making it seem like a non-negotiable. And then also there was this Board of Peace charter announcement, which I can get into later. But, yeah, why don't you tell us about what happened with Greenland?

So Trump started the day essentially in a speech telling all these world leaders, these important folks, the world elite, the U.S. must have Greenland. And it really seemed like there was no turning back. He said that Denmark, he said respectfully, couldn't protect the island from Russia and China. said they essentially couldn't defend it, even went back to World War II, saying that, you know, that the world, the U.S. bailed out everyone then, and that everyone in that room would be speaking Russian or Japanese had the U.S. not intervened in the way that it did. So it said that he essentially said the U.S. must have control of it. And then hours after this speech, he met with NATO leader Mark Rudy. and everything changed. This is very quickly, Trump had been planning to put tariffs on all of our European allies

who had opposed his acquisition or his plans to annex Greenland. Those were set to go into effect February 1st. After meeting with the NATO leader, Trump changed course, said he wouldn't put any tariffs on our allies and said that the framework of a future deal for Greenland had been wreaked. Now, we don't know what that means. He's released very few details, hasn't said very much other than that, you know, the structure is underway. We've heard a few more things since then.

Denmark's leaders have said we can discuss politics, but we won't discuss the sovereignty of our nation. So that's not quite clear. There's been some suggestions that maybe this is going to be. The U.S. might have sovereignty over its own bases in Greenland. Right now, it has one. But whether that's going to come to fruition, we just don't know. Yeah, there's so little information out there. We just know that Trump has pulled back from what had seemed like the brink of, you know,

like the fresh round of the trade war that started late last year, as we've been covering. And it looked like it was really going to ramp back up. Wall Street was spooked, although I think there was some confusion about what to make of it. But in the end, he pulled back, which was really pretty remarkable, given how forceful that speech was in the morning. But that wasn't the only thing that happened over in Switzerland in that little ski town. You mentioned the Board of Peace. So this was a pretty big deal.

this is for the second stage of or phase two of what's happening in Gaza. Is that correct? Yes. So the U.S. actually kind of drafted up this Board of Peace months ago and it was approved by the U.N. But as a lot of things with Trump is just kind of grown bigger, it seems, at least in his mind. and actually from what's coming together, then what was initially proposed. So the original idea was just that this board would exist for the reconstruction of Gaza and making it a peaceful place. And now it seems that it has expanded to maybe be like a potential alternative to the UN, although Trump has made comments saying, even though he says the UN has never really reached its potential, but he says it shouldn't go away because it does have such great potential. So, yeah, but he's invited. I believe it's like 50 to 60 countries at this point to be on the board.

And about half of them have agreed so far. he's also going to chair the board. And he's also said that you can buy permanent membership on the board for a billion dollars. So that's interesting. And also some of the people that he's invited are also interesting, like he invited Putin to be on it. He also invited the leader of Belarus. And then a number of Middle Eastern countries. countries, Pakistan, Egypt, Jordan, Turkey. Hungary has agreed to be on it, Bahrain. So, yeah,

like with Greenland, I mean, I think we know less about the Greenland deal at this point. But like with Greenland, you know, I think a lot of things are sort of still coming together with this board and there are a lot of, you know, unanswered questions at this point. as it's just in its very early stages. But it already, I think, has been kind of full of surprises. And, oh, I wanted to add, so they initially created it for the reconstruction of Gaza. But now, you know, I think the idea is that they'll be able to address other global issues and conflicts. We'll have to see how that plays out.

And we'll have to see what happens next on Greenland. It's always an adventure with this administration. You just never know what's coming. But thank you so much, Brett. Thanks for having me.