Breaking News from Pod Save America - Trump EMBARRASSES America In DISASTER Speech

Episode Date: January 21, 2026

From glaring mix-ups to meandering answers, Trump’s latest speech is drawing global attention for all the wrong reasons. Tommy Vietor and Jon Lovett break down the fallout. 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

All right, Levin, President Trump just wrapped up a long, rambling speech and then a Q&A at the World Economic Forum in Davos. He had a lot to say about the pending U.S. invasion of Greenland. He made some new threats to our neighbors in Canada. And then, of course, there was racism and talk about the ice invasion of Minnesota. So, Levin and I watched the whole thing, so you don't have to. Let's start with the news Trump made about Greenland and where he seems to have backed off a bit on the threat, we hope. We never asked for anything. And we never got anything.

We probably won't get anything unless I decide to use exceptional. 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. So we want a piece of ice for world protection. And they won't give it. We've never asked for anything else. And we could have kept that piece of land. And we didn't. So they have a choice. You can say yes.

And we will be very appreciative. Or you can say no. And we will remember. Okay. So did he back off or is it a threat? Where do you land? What's funny about this is I actually was looking for the coverage of the speech. And because he also spoke yesterday, the headlines currently sit side by side, which is Trump doubles down on Greenland threat.

Trump backs off on Greenland threat. Yeah. It sure does sound like backing off, especially when he does the VH1 behind the speech analysis during the speech. I mean, like, that's the biggest statement. Everyone probably feels relieved. Love this news, yes. If you say yes, we'll be appreciative. It was so weird.

You know, we'll remember. Yeah. Like, he came into Greenland. He came into Davos Hot posting, like, AI-generated images of himself, like, stamping a U.S. flag into the ground in Greenland and, like, attacking all of his allies. It does sound like what he was mad about was a basic misunderstanding. Like, some European countries sent a couple dozen troops to Greenland. They thought as a way to show that they were taking Arctic security seriously. Right, listening to what he was saying.

Trump thought it was like an invasion or a response to him. Uh-huh. So he's mostly just stupid. Yeah. Wow. Well, I have to say, people, it's always like, how is, how, how is Trump going to back down when he never packs down? But sometimes he does just back down. He's like, all right, I'm out. Yeah. Yeah. In one point in the speech, he's like, you know, your comments yesterday, you know, made the stock market dip.

So it's very clear that he's watching that closely and cares a lot. Yeah. Also, the guy who doesn't care about elite opinion is currently leading the largest ever American delegation to Davos. Just flagging. No one has ever cared more about elite opinion than Donald Trump. And he loves, he wants to, he's a crowd pleaser, man. And that is the crowd that wants to. hear him back off. So he's going to do it, hey, do it in front of the goons at Davos. Yeah, exactly. So were there also some moments when Trump just seemed like a little confused per usual at the podium. Let's watch that. Europe, I'm helping NATO. And I've, until the last few

days, when I told them about Iceland, they loved me. They called me daddy, right? Last time, very smart man said, he's our daddy. He's running it. I was like running it. I went from running it to being a terrible human being. They're not there for us on Iceland. That I can tell you. I mean, our stock market took the first dip yesterday because of Iceland. So Iceland's already cost us a lot of money.

But that dip is peanuts compared to what it's gone up. So, yeah, I guess the markets on the whole are up. So I guess that's why we should invade Greenland. So it seems like earlier in the speech, he was trying to make some kind of, all I want is a little piece of ice. Like he was trying to like make a little like,

just want to get my beak wet here with some of these glaciers that you're also obsessed with. And then he got confused. Yeah, he repeatedly says Iceland, not Greenland, which, as you noted, are different places. He did mention the comment about, you're my daddy, is from Mark Ruta, the head of NATO. It is embarrassing. And Mark Ruta kisses his ass constantly. Yeah, that was the stock market comment there.

Like, the S&P was down 2% on Tuesday. He clearly cares a lot. But, yeah, I mean, he just sort of, it's just, if you want to invade a place, maybe get the name right. Yeah, no, I think that's, I think that's important. I also look like the, you know, in Biden's, I'd say, waning era, there were a lot of moments where he would just get there and say, like, look, I was talking to the president of Mexico about Gaza. It's like, hold on, man, I think you fucked up.

And it was, and it would become like a day of coverage. This is actually intense. It's like a big, like, he gets stuck on Iceland for a while. That's, that is like a pretty bad mistake. Yeah. He's a little bit, man, but he is jet lagged. Yeah. It is a few hours ahead.

We defeated Medicare. Trump also clearly did not like the pushback he's gotten on the Greenland invasion plan from French President Emmanuel Macron and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney. Here's a bit of those comments. Because presidents allowed them to get away with it. It became very tough. So when I called up Emmanuel Macron, I watched him yesterday with those beautiful sunglasses. What the hell happened?

Kennedy gets a lot of freebies from us, by the way. They should be grateful also, but they're not. I watched your prime minister yesterday. He wasn't so grateful. They should be grateful to us. Canada. Canada lives because of the United States. Remember that, Mark, the next time you make your statements.

So that felt like a threat. Yeah, it's very sort of godfather saying, like, you know, you never even asked me anything. You never even invited me over for a Danish. Yeah. The Mark Carney, I watched the Mark Carney speech yesterday. and it really allows you to just like live out, neolib out over the old world order. And like I really appreciated that he said like, look, we we believed in a rules-based international order, but part of it was always a fiction because Mike might still made right for the biggest countries.

And we looked past who committed the human rights abuses mattered and how the laws were enforced. And it was sort of honest recognition that that tradeoff was worth it. But if it tilts too far in the direction of great powers just dictating what happens, it becomes a cudgel. And it was so just, it's heartbreaking to watch the leader of Canada, who sits atop the largest unmilitarized border in the world, say, I'm sorry to say this, but America is committing a kind of economic and like suicide. And so now instead of us being united with them against China and Russia,

we have to ally with all of the middle powers against China and the United States. States and it is such a fucking unforced error. It's just like, like, just a nation just giving up. And it was, like, heartbreaking to see. But at least we have our intellectual heavyweight coming up to argue against it. On the stage. This like rational argument against this fucking nonsense. Yeah, Mark Carney's speech is really good. Mark Carney, I think, is one of the few politicians in the world who's figured out how to manage Trump. And you remember, like, Trump basically got Mark Carney elected. The liberal party in Canada was all the dead after, what, nine years of Justin Trudeau. And then Trump started talking about the 51st date and Mark Carney ran this campaign on elbows up and

fighting back and pushing back. And he's benefited a lot politically. I'm like I continue to be surprised that someone like Kirstarmer over in the UK whose poll numbers are like, you know, negative 50 right now underwater is not also taking a note and pushing back. Just so folks know, Emmanuel Macron was wearing sunglasses during his speech because he like had a burst blood vessel in his eye. So he was wearing like aviators that were tinted blue and it just, it looked ridiculous.

But honestly, he could pull up. it off. He could pull it off. He's a handsome guy. He's French. A French president at Davos in sunglasses. I don't want it to be because I'm going to look at blueish I'm doing French stuff. Boonga boonga party. Yeah, I don't know. Pod Save America is brought to you by Cook Unity. I've 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 design 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,

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There was just raw, uncut racism and xenophobia. Here's an example. The situation in Minnesota reminds us that the West cannot mass import foreign cultures, which have failed to ever build a successful society of their own. I mean, we're taking people from Somalia, and Somalia is a failed, it's not a nation. Got no government, got no police, got no military, got no nothing. And then we have this fake congressperson who they just reported is worth $30 million. You believe this?

Elon Omar talking about the Constitution provides me. She comes from a country that's not a country. And she's telling us how to run America. Not going to get away with it much longer. Let me tell you. Yeah. Pretty sure Elon Omar, as a member of Congress, has every right to tell us how to run the country since she's supposed to draft laws and stuff.

Yeah, and just anybody. We don't hold people responsible for the countries they come from. Some people escape terrible places and build lives and also contribute amazing things to America. That's sort of the whole bargain. We didn't become what we are because we took Greenland. We did some, you know, we did some stretching out, obviously, especially in our manifest destiny days. But we had a kind of ideology of welcoming people. And as much as a lot of people like Trump fought it over the generations, they lose and then America becomes better.

And he doesn't really get that and sort of not really day regale to talk about it. But it was kind of what we should be talking about, one would think. Yes. Yeah. Like Somalia is a failed state, but the blaming on the population there is so fucked up and cruel. I mean, like, there's a long history here. There's colonialism. There's British and Italian colonial history.

I mean, whatever. We don't have time to get into all of it. But it's just a gross way to frame it. And also, like, the broader context is he's making these comments in Europe. when there is this rise of these far right parties that I think draw a lot of energy from migration crises that stemmed from conflicts like Afghanistan or the Syrian Civil War. And you're seeing like neo-Nazis winning elections in Germany in the AFD party. And for Trump to go there and to say shit like that, like that gives so much fuel to that fire.

Yeah, it's, he never, never occurs to him like, well, it's interesting. You hold the Somali's responsible for the failure of their government. It doesn't seem to occur to you that the current people of Germany or the great grandchildren of some of history's great monsters and now they're kind of, you know, recycling and driving their tiny little cars. I feel like, you know, maybe you don't hold people. You hold countries responsible and you punish people who are responsible, but then, you know, that's that.

Yeah. The whole speech is very frustrating to watch. I mean, at one point he says that China has no wind energy and it's like you can Google, like, pictures of like the largest wind farm in the world. And I think China has more wind. in solar energy than any other country combined in the world. There's just so many brazen lies in this speech. He did some weird kind of like peasant brain crystal logic of like if you build a windmill,

your economy fails. Like what? Like you curse the weather. Yes. It's crazy. Yeah. China's total wind generation capacity is 500, 561 gigawatts, which is more than three times the, what the U.S. has.

And it's 48% of the world's share of wind power. So I think they got this one covered. Yeah. Donnie. Anything else jump out to you from Davos? Only the, I want to just go back to the Mark Carney thing, a second, only because it was not just, I think, an excellent speech and argument. It was, like, it has been very rare to see any kind of American tell an intellectual story that is not, like,

that was not an argument made with a strong, like, political lens. Like, I think he was careful and he thinks about politics, of course, but he was making an intellectual argument for a deeper logic of his worldview from which a, like, a political argument will emerge. And I think there are just few American politicians. Like I remember when I worked for Hillary Clinton, like, love her, dislike her. Like, she had come from an era in which you gave those kinds of speeches for the elite, for lack of a better word. And they were of value because it framed for people that were going to cover you, but also just think about what your campaign would represent. And then it allowed you from that deeper worldview to have a point of view in politics.

And I just, like, that was what made it so refreshing to me. And I would like to see more Democratic politicians kind of worrying a little less about the direct immediate political implications and more thinking about the deeper argument they want to make about America's American government here, America's role in the world. I just feel like it's missing. Yeah, I agree with that. And also, you know, we were at we all at dinner with a friend last night and talking about how it really feels like the damage that Trump is doing to the U.S. international standing in the world could very well turn permanent soon. And I think you're right, like someone making. the case against Trumpism and what he's doing and invading Greenland and just sort of his his worldview of like might is right and spheres of influence is really important in this moment. And someone willing to make a like say whatever the truth of it is, like admitting we can't go back to how it was admitting the damage we've done while trying to kind of make a counter argument really to what Carney is saying here would be valuable not for like clicks and it wouldn't, you know, might not might not pop on the fucking YouTube, which is all that matters. But still. I think it'd be worth doing. I want to hear it. Yeah. Well, you know who is Poppet on YouTube? Pod Save America, which is why you should subscribe,

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