Breaking News from Pod Save America - Trump ADMITS DEFEAT And Totally Folds In Greenland Flop

Episode Date: January 22, 2026

Trump walks back his Greenland threats after days of global backlash, leaving allies questioning what, if anything, was gained. Jon Favreau and Tommy Vietor react to Trump’s “Art of the Deal.” Go to https://www.cookunity.com/CROOKED for 50% off your first order. Thanks to CookUnity for supporting the show! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Not loving your AT&T or T Mobile Bill? Yeah, we've been hearing that a lot. Good news. Bring your AT&T or T Mobile bill to Verizon and we'll give you a better deal. So get away from that unfortunate phone bill and get to Verizon. Run, ride, canoe. Whatever it takes, we'll be here. Bring your AT&T or T mobile bill to a Verizon store today

and we'll give you a better deal on the best network. A better deal. No surprises. That's Verizon. Best Network based on Route Metrics, Best Overall Mobile Network Performance, U.S. second half, 2025. All rights reserved. It must provide a recent consumer mobile bill in the name of the person

for giving me the deal. Additional Terms, Conditions, and Restrictions, All right, Tommy. In the Trumpian war for Arctic supremacy via the conquest of Greenland, it turns out that Davos was Trump's waterloo, where he surrendered to Denmark without ever firing a shot. Well done. After telling an audience of global elites, he wouldn't be using force to take Greenland. The president later announced that he is dropping his plan tariffs on Denmark and our other European allies. After he and NATO Secretary General Mark Ruta, quote, form the framework. of a future deal with respect to Greenland

and, in fact, the entire Arctic region, this solution, if consummated, will be a great one for the United States of America. Consumation is usually used in the context of banging, right? He and Ruta are going to fuck that deal right out. Well, he does call him Daddy. Details are a bit sparse,

but here's how Trump described the concept of a framework of a potential deal to CNBC's Joe Kernan. Getting back a lot of some of the nervousness we had in the last couple of days. The tariffs off nothing happens on on February 1st. No, we took that off because it looks like we have pretty much a concept of a deal. A deal of ownership, a deal? Well, it's a little bit complex, but we'll

explain it down the line. But the Secretary General of NATO and I and some other people were talking, and it's a kind of a deal that I wanted to be able to do. Where does Denmark, did they weigh in on what they want, what they would agree to? Well, I assume they did because he very much represents. He's a leader, Mark, you know, Mark, Wuta. And he, I assume he's been speaking to them. He's been speaking to all of them. Are mineral rights involved? Is ownership involved? Did the Golden Dome sway people? I don't want to say, I don't want to say yet, but... The Golden Dome was very compelling today when you talked about that. Yeah, yeah, the Golden Dome and they're going to be involved in the Golden Dome, and they're going to be involved in mineral rights, and so are we.

Joe Kernan's giving Trump some Golden Dome there. That interview. That was, Sean Hannity watched that and started getting jealous. What do you think, Tommy? He, like, Trump just got rolled. He put all his chips in the table, and then he realized, like, this was not, it was not worth fighting this fight to steal Greenland. And he took tariffs off the table. He took military invasion off the table.

And he folded, like, a cheap suit, which he was also wearing there. It's just, like, this is why it's so annoying to be a Democrat on foreign policy, because obviously, I'm glad he climbed down from this insane position. I don't want us to invade Greenland. I didn't want us to bomb Iran, but like he is weak and pathetic and embarrassed himself, almost as much as Joe Kernan in that interview. And really, as much as everyone involved. Yeah.

I mean, just there's plenty of embarrassment and humiliation to go around. The only thing I see, I'm embarrassed for America when I see this kind of stuff. Same. I also, though, look at the rest of the world and I'm like, now you know what we have to deal with. Yeah, it sucks. We're all in this together, aren't we? Also, concept of deal is one of my favorite political euphemisms. It's like it just means there's not even close to a deal.

No one's agreed on anything. Nothing is papered. Nothing is signed. I'm to like basically stop asking me the question. Well, and it's not like we got any more information from Trump as time went on. He saw a bunch of reporters after that interview with Joe Kernan, and they pressed him for more details. And here's what, here's what Trump said to Caitlin Collins and CNN.

Does it still include the United States having ownership of Greenland like you've said you wanted? It's a long-term deal. It's the ultimate long-term deal. And I think it puts everybody in a really good position, especially as it pertains to security and minerals and everything else. How long is it, Mr. President? How long would the deal be, Mr. President? Infinite.

There is no time limit. It's forever. And how would you ratify the deal? It's signed forever. But you haven't signed anything yet, right? It's a deal that's forever. Will there be enough fact? Anyway, Mr. President. Will there be enough fact?

People are, what happens is people are out there and they're working it right now. They're working the details of the deal. But it's what's called an infinite deal. It's forever. You talked about. You see, the deal has interrupted the space time continuum the deal exists outside of time and space there has never not been a deal there never will not be a deal the sad little like quiet piano music and the background makes the

whole thing even though doesn't he seems he seems defeated he must be so tired remember this guy just did like he's done like 50 events today he flew all the way to davos he did like a two-hour press conference yesterday just repeating the same crap yeah this is unconditional you don't think he's fueled by his diet of McDonald's. Oh, yeah. Yeah, you're right. This is his Yorktown.

I mean, what I'm guessing they're going to announce is some added number of U.S. troops in Greenland for missile defense purposes, but we already have troops there and a base there doing that

and we already had the right to put more troops there. And then he'll claim that he has secured some sort of oil and gas or mineral access that I assume will just absolutely never come to fruition

because these are decades-long projects because, as you may have heard in his speech earlier, Greenland is in fact covered in ice. It'll be very hard to get to all this stuff, even if it's melting. There was a paragraph from the Times story on it. It says the announcement followed a NATO meeting on Wednesday where top military officers from the alliance's member states discussed a compromise

in which Denmark would give the United States sovereignty over small pockets of Greenlandic land where the United States could build military bases, according to three senior officials familiar with their discussion. And then they're saying, but they don't know if that was Ruta's idea, and they don't know if that has formed the basis for the potential, framework for a future infinite deal. But pockets of small pockets of greenlandic land is where we are right now. Like what are we talking about? It sounds like wasn't there always an offer to like you can build more military bases if you want?

So maybe the military bases where you build them, I guess on the technical. Everything is so stupid. This is exactly. But like this is sort of what you figured was going to happen if it wasn't all out war, right? is that like it is just something to tell Trump you got to. But even he doesn't, he doesn't seem like he believes that he got anything. He knows that he knows that he will have his suckups and his sycophants and we're going to watch one in a minute that will give you a sense of where this is going to go. He knows that this is insane.

And he also knows that like, again, it's his fault. Like he could have quietly tried to negotiate this behind the scenes and then announced it. But he decided to tweet an AI image of himself planting an American flag in the soil in Greenland with J.D. Vance and Marston. Marco Rubio against a sign that said Greenland, United States Territory, established 2026. And I'm sorry, you set a pretty high bar for yourself, dickhead. What the fuck. asshole. Pod Save America is brought to by Cook Unity.

I have been using Cook Unity forever for years, long before they ever sponsored this podcast. It is fantastic. Most of my meals are from Cook Unity. They deliver chef-designed meals that balance real flavor, nutrition, and convenience with no cooking or planning required. They also let you choose what works for you with collections like protein forward. Better for sleep, mood boosting, and fiber maxing. Plus, it's awesome knowing their roster of all-star chefs

include Food Network alumni, James Beard Award winners, and acclaimed restaurateurs who balance bold flavors and nutrition and small batch meals delivered, fresh, not frozen. Taste comfort and craftsm chip and every bite from the award-winning chefs behind Cook Unity. Go to cookunity.com slash crooked or use code Crooked to get 50% off your first order. That's 50% off your first order at cookunity.com slash crooked or use the code crooked. You're talking about Sicafants.

Will Kane of Fox News. I know you've criticized it before, but you know what he's really good at. He's very, very good at humiliating himself on live television. And here he is doing that right now. Yeah. What did you strike you, Carlo, this entire episode? It's really hard not to see this through the lens of the art of the deal. President Trump makes a demand, and that is the purchase of Greenland.

He is initially and immediately rebuffed. He amps up. the demand in saying that we will own Greenland, that we will take Greenland, to which everyone then responds even more, exasperated and in shock. And now we wind up back in a place where perhaps it's not full ownership,

but it is a deal that he describes as good for everyone. It seems like President Trump, it doesn't matter how many times we go through this exercise, nobody understands the lesson of what's happening. It is the art of the deal. Can you imagine going on TV and doing that? How do you fucking say that with the straight face? Will can you imagine?

You are a fucking embarrassment. Yeah. That is so, like, do you have any self-respect? Don't forget the balls, sir, Mr. Kane. And you know what? And then he amped up, and then everyone's exasperated. Do you know where we end up back at? We end up back?

Nowhere. A deal that helps no one. It's like, Will. We end up back at something that the people that he wanted to give something up didn't give up anything, and instead gave what they had already offered before he made the threat. And in the process, alienated all of our closest allies, nearly tore apart NATO, nearly tore apart the international order, told every country in the world that the United States, in case they were still wondering, and most of them weren't, that we are not a reliable ally anymore. And also, he created a new cycle for himself that distracted him from the core message of affordability that they were supposed to be focused on. Remember, remember the big reset?

Remember Susie Wiles was going to do an affordability tour? And that was going to be all we focused on now? I mean, in fairness, once again, everyone was complaining about affordability, but we were about to pay Greenlanders $100,000 a person. $5 billion. Yeah, and then levy more taxes on ourselves for tariffs. And now, art of the deal, Trump has saved us all that money. Like, again, it's a good outcome. Like, we didn't really get anything.

You know, none of us are going to benefit from this stupid fucking deal. I'm sure most of it will never come to fruition. It's a good outcome that we are not still going to war with Denmark. But it's just, like, imagine working in the White House. and you just wasted weeks of your life with this idiotic nonsense. Forget about the white house. Think about all the fucking people in Europe. All the people in Europe.

Think about the fire drill they all went through. All the diplomats. All the things we could. The opportunity cost. Mark Carney just gave a speech about how it's the end of the global order. Yeah. The Canadian Prime Minister just denounced you to everyone. By the way,

Mark Carney is the only, like one of the only politicians who's figured out how to manage Trump effectively and benefit politically from it. Like, remember, the liberal party in Canada was dead in the water. It was like nine years of Justin Trudeau. They were going to get crushed in that election. and Trump started saying that the 51st state, Mark Carney runs his campaign with elbows up as the mantra, like we're going to fight the Americans back.

He wins election and now he's really popular. Like there is a lesson that a lot of foreign leaders can learn and should learn from this, which is this guy, like, there's more bark than bite at this moment. You know, all of his tariff threats, if you actually punch back, he will cave because the stock market dipped 2% or whatever. Unbelievable.

Unbelievable. What a waste of a goddamn time. I mean, I guess someone who got something out of it was Will Kane, who's, you know, he's on his way to becoming the next Hannity there with, with, uh, just talk like that. Wild. That guy is a clown. I've never seen anything quite like that.

There wouldn't be a lot. Keep an eye. There's going to be a lot of that shit on Twitter. Yeah. Keep an eye on it. But I think the, uh, the appropriate response is to ruthlessly mock them. And if you want to, uh, hear more of that mocking. Mm-hmm.

And you want us to bring you up to the minute news on what's happening with our potential wars against foreign adversaries like, Greenland, Iceland, really anyone in the Arctic. Please subscribe to Pazade of America. Please. It's free. It's free. Just hit the subscribe button.

We're doing this all the time. It's a good. We're having fun. Help progressive independent media. Let's do it.