Name: What Trumps inner circle thinks of his push for Greenland
Uploaded: 2026-01-21T00:58:14.697Z
Duration: 3 min 22 s
Description: President Trump spent nearly two hours recapping the first year of his second term on Tuesday from the White House. He touted efforts on trade, the economy, immigration and foreign policy.

President Trump spent nearly two hours recapping the first year of his second term on Tuesday from the White House. He touted efforts on trade, the economy, immigration and foreign policy.

Washington

President Trump's inner circle does not view his interest in acquiring Greenland or other international moves as contradictory to his 'America First' agenda. According to CBS News analyst Robert Costa, the definition of 'America First' is shaped by Trump's perspective and adapts to current events and his intuition. 

Costa noted that Trump's approach to foreign policy, including skepticism toward traditional alliances like NATO, reflects a shift within the Republican base away from post-World War II international norms. Trump is focused on leaving a personal mark on both domestic and foreign policy, with his advisers offering less resistance to his initiatives in his second term.

What Trump's inner circle thinks of his push for Greenland

Preserve, protect, and defend. Preserve, protect, and defend. The Constitution of the United States. The Constitution of the United States. So help me God. So help me God. Congratulations, Mr. President. That was the moment exactly one year ago when President Trump took office for the second time. Today at the White House, the President spent nearly two hours recapping the first year of his second term, touting efforts on trade, the economy, immigration, and foreign policy. CBS News Chief Washington Analyst Robert Costa joins us now. Bob, thank you for being here. When the President talks about acquiring Greenland or controlling Venezuela, do people in his inner circle see that as contradictory to the America First agenda he campaigned on? No, they do not. When I speak to sources inside the administration, it's evident that America First is defined by President Trump and how he sees the world that day. It's a fluid definition. It's often reactionary to world events, to his own intuition, and that's what we're seeing play out across so many fronts. President Trump said he's worried NATO allies won't uphold the military pact and come to USAID if necessary. Let's watch. 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, I'm just asking. President Trump can be credited with making sure that NATO countries do pony up their fair share, but does questioning U.S. alliances resonate with his base? The base of the Republican Party long had an adherence to the post-World War II order that was established with the United Nations and NATO in the wake of the allies winning that conflict, but since then you've seen an erosion of this kind of confidence in international institutions and international norms, and President Trump has been able to create his own foreign policy blueprint for the Republican Party that is, in many ways, some distance from what President Reagan and President George W. Bush and other conservative presidents have talked about in recent decades. So the base is going along with him because they're not as tethered to the past as they might have been 25 years ago. How much are his thoughts about his legacy motivating his actions in his second term? For example, when it comes to Greenland, when it comes to the ballroom, renaming federal buildings, and to what extent are the people around him this time not pushing back? Legacy is not a word President Trump talks about a lot. It's a word we heard more in the Clinton administration and other presidencies about how they try to get the future to think about them. President Trump certainly wants to be remembered in history, but he has an expansive view of executive power and he has an expansive view of his own role in the world, and that is really influencing so much of what he does. He wants his fingerprints, his image, to be part of the conversation, whether it's foreign policy or domestic policy. He's really putting himself at the center of the American system, not just at the center of the American presidency, and that really is unprecedented. We hear that word a lot, but as I talked about on Sunday morning on CBS in recent days, this is someone who's really culturally, politically, economically putting himself at the center, and he has a Congress that's always diminished in a lot of these exchanges, and that's enabling him to move forward and presents him with many soft targets. All right, Robert Costa, thank you.

President Trump spoke at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, addressing European allies as tensions rise over his Greenland demands. Mr. Trump demanded immediate negotiations to acquire the territory and claimed he wouldn't use force. Ed O'Keefe reports.

Davos

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Stocks plunged on the first day of trading after President Trump threatened tariffs against European nations that oppose his bid to acquire Greenland. Lauren Hirsch, a New York Times reporter, joins CBS News with more.

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President Trump's Greenland demands have already had a negative impact on the economy in the U.S. On Tuesday, all three major U.S. stock indexes dropped over the threat of new tariffs. CBS News business analyst Jill Schlesinger explains what to know.

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Global stocks fell after U.S. President Donald Trump made new threats to take Greenland by force during a long press conference. Asked how far he’d go, Trump replied, ‘You’ll find out.’ The threats came just hours after he shared an AI-generated image of both Canada and Greenland covered in the U.S. flag.

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French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday said the European Union should not bend to 'the law of the strongest.' He told the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that it was staggering that the EU was having to contemplate using its 'anti-coercion instrument' against the U.S. (Macron is wearing dark glasses because of an eye condition.)

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France's Emmanuel Macron and U.S. President Donald Trump have long exchanged firm handshakes, but their relationship is showing cracks. In a striking break from diplomatic norms, Trump publicly shared what he called a private message from Macron – proposing a G7 meeting in Paris and discussing Syria, Iran, and Greenland.

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President Trump continued his push for the U.S. to take over Greenland, telling the prime minister of Norway his perceived snub for the Nobel Peace Prize meant he no longer feels obligated to "think only of peace." The prize is awarded by the private Nobel Institute, not the Norwegian government. Ed O'Keefe has more, and then Holly Williams joins with analysis.

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U.S. President Donald Trump has told Norway's prime minister in a letter that he no longer feels obligated "to think purely of Peace" because he had not been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, and he repeated his demand for control of Greenland.

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Breakdown