Trump Threatens Tariffs Against Countries That Oppose His Greenland Push
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Trump Threatens Tariffs Against Countries That Oppose a US Greenland Takeover
President Trump threatened Friday that he may use tariffs to punish countries that don't support a U.S. takeover of Greenland.
At a White House event on rural healthcare, Trump described how he had used tariff threats to pressure European countries regarding prescription drug prices. He then suggested he might use the same approach in his quest to have the U.S. control Greenland.
"I may put a tariff on countries if they don't go along with Greenland, because we need Greenland, because we need Greenland for national security," he said. "So I may do that."
Trump's latest threat comes amid continued tensions over his quest to control the icy Arctic island, which is a territory of Denmark, a NATO ally. A bipartisan congressional delegation met Friday with Danish and Greenlandic lawmakers in Copenhagen to try to ease tensions and reaffirm friendly relations.
Some congressional Republicans are speaking out forcefully against Trump administration threats to take control of Greenland, in some cases making clear that there would be strong congressional pushback to any U.S. military action.
"Greenland needs to be viewed as our ally, not as an asset, and I think that's what you're hearing with this delegation," Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska told reporters.
Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska said it was wrong for Trump to bully an ally. "It's utter buffoonery to think that we should compel Greenland to be part of the United States," he said.
The congressional concerns follow meetings in Washington, D.C., this week that highlighted the deep disagreements between the Trump administration and Danish, Greenlandic and European officials on the future of Greenland.
"It's clear that the president has this wish of conquering over Greenland," Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said Wednesday after a White House meeting with Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Rasmussen called Trump's push for U.S. control of the island "totally unacceptable," though he said the parties would continue to talk.
Congress Is Ignoring Many of Trump's Proposed Spending Cuts
Guided by blueprints written by conservative think tanks and supporters, President Trump set out to radically reduce the size and scope of the federal government in his first budget request last spring. But as Congress finally gets around to approving the spending bills for the 2026 fiscal year, many of the radical cuts Trump sought are being softened and, in some cases, completely ignored as lawmakers continue to fund programs ranging from the Voice of America to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
As The New York Times's Catie Edmondson reported this week, the funding bills that lawmakers have been passing ahead of a January 30 deadline look a lot different than what Trump requested in his budget, even though Republicans control both houses of Congress. For example, the House passed a spending package for the State Department that would provide $19 billion more for foreign aid programs than Trump requested, though at the same time the bills reduce spending by $9 billion compared to last year.
Trump sought to eviscerate the Voice of America, but Congress is providing $653 million for the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which operates the international broadcaster. That's roughly $500 million more than Trump requested.
The White House also took aim at federally funded scientific research in its budget, slashing the allocation for the National Science Foundation by 57%, but Congress is keeping its funding roughly steady at $8.75 billion, according to Sen. Patty Murray, the senior Democrat on the Appropriations Committee. Inside the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research was slated for elimination in the Trump budget, but lawmakers are providing $634 million to continue its work.
"These are bills that reject the devastating cuts Trump demanded in his deeply unserious budget he sent to Congress about a year ago," Murray told the Times. "When just about every secretary came before our Appropriations Committee to advocate for those Trump funding cuts, I made clear to them I planned to rip up his budget and write a new one - and that is exactly what we are doing."
Conservative concern: Some Republican lawmakers have expressed concerns about the funding bills, seeing them as proof that spending just cannot be cut significantly, even with near-complete GOP control in Washington.
Republican Rep. Eric Burlison cited an example: the National Endowment for Democracy. That's "a program that Elon Musk, while leading DOGE, said publicly was a scam; that it was rife with corruption and an evil organization that should be dissolved," Burlison told the Times, referring to the Department of Government Efficiency, the Trump administration's effort to unilaterally shrink government agencies and spending. "President Trump and his administration attempted to do that, and yet here we are trying to fund it."
Still, higher-than-requested funding is not expected to derail the spending packages. "If this bill were presented to the President in its current form, his senior advisors would recommend that he sign it into law," the White House Office of Management and Budget said in a statement last week in support of a package providing appropriations for Commerce, Justice, and Science and Related Agencies, Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies, Interior, Environment and Related Agencies.
Poll of the Day: 58% Call Trump's First Year Back a 'Failure'
Most Americans adults, 58%, say the first year of President Trump's second term was a "failure," while 42% call it a success, according to a new CNN/SSRS poll. The poll found that 61% disapprove of Trump's performance as president and his handling of the economy. Similarly, 63% disapprove of the president's handling of healthcare policy, 62% don't like his approach to tariffs, 60% dislike his handling of foreign affairs and 58% disapprove of his handling of immigration. Fifty-seven percent said Trump had gone too far in cutting federal programs.
Nearly two-thirds of those polled said Trump "hasn't paid enough attention to the country's most important problems," compared to 36% who said he has had the right priorities.
The poll was conducted from January 9 to 12 among 1,209 respondents. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.1%.
Number of the Day: 73,000
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is currently holding 73,000 people in custody, CBS News reported Friday. That's the highest level in ICE history, and the first time the number has exceeded 70,000.
Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for public affairs at the Department of Homeland Security, told CBS that the record-setting detention effort was made possible by the Republican tax and policy bill that became law in July. The law provides $45 billion to expand detention facilities, and many billions more for enforcement.
"Thanks to the One Big Beautiful Bill, ICE now has historic funding to secure enough detention capacity to maintain an average daily population of 100,000 illegal aliens and 80,000 new ICE beds," she said.
Doris Meissner, who led the Immigration and Naturalization Service during the Clinton administration and is now a senior fellow at the non-partisan Migration Policy Institute, told CBS that the ICE effort is unprecedented. "We are talking about a system that already, prior to the Big Beautiful Bill, constituted the largest detention and removal infrastructure of any country in the world - and now it's being put on steroids," she said.
Fiscal News Roundup
- Trump Says He Could Impose Tariffs on Countries That Oppose His Goal of Acquiring Greenland – NBC News
- 'Dumbest Thing I've Ever Heard': Republicans Amp Up Their Resistance to Trump's Greenland Push – Politico
- Funding Crunch Threatens House Recess – Politico
- Sen. Moreno Blames Dems as Health Insurance Talks Stall in Congress – Dayton Daily News
- Trump Suggests Kevin Hassett May Not Be Fed Chair After All – CNN
- Poll Finds Majority of Americans Say Trump Is Focused on the Wrong Priorities – CNN
- Canada Turns to China as Trump's Tariffs and Threats Bring Foes Together – NBC News
- Taiwan Pledges $250 Billion in U.S. Spending in Exchange for Lower Tariffs – Wall Street Journal
- Donald Trump's First Venezuela Oil Sale Deal Goes to Megadonor's Company – Financial Times
- Trump Delays Seizing Wages of Student Borrowers as Affordability Push Ramps Up – Bloomberg
- Trump Housing Plan to Allow 401(k) Money for Down Payments, Adviser Says – Reuters
- Tax Changes Coming for Seniors This Year – The Hill
- Oops! The House Sent the Wrong Obamacare Bill Text to the Senate – Regular Order
- Trump Sets Fraudster Free From Prison for a Second Time – New York Times
Views and Analysis
- Trump Still Only Has 'Concepts of a Plan' for Health Care Reform – Monica Potts, New Republic
- The Push for Lower US Drug Prices Uses Bad Logic – Lisa Jarvis, Bloomberg
- Wall Street Gives Trump the All-Clear to Push Disruptive Agenda – Denitsa Tsekova and Isabelle Lee, Bloomberg
- Cooling Inflation Doesn't Mean Tariffs Were Harmless – Jonthan Levin, Bloomberg
- Trump's Own Advisers Suddenly Unnerved as ICE Raids Take Horrific Turn – Greg Sargent, New Republic
- Congressional Republicans Might Finally Jump Off the Hamster Wheel – Geoge F. Will, Washington Post
- With Powell, the Guardrails Are Holding – John Authers, Bloomberg
- Can Congress Still Check the Commander in Chief? – Mishal Husain, Bloomberg (podcast)
- The Student Loan Report the Trump Administration Didn't Want Published – Emma Janssen, American Prospect
- Hundreds of Big Post-Election Donors Have Benefited From Trump's Return to Office – Karen Yourish, Kenneth P. Vogel and Charlie Smart, New York Times