Donald Trump on Greenland: President Signals Potential Takeover

"I think we'll work something out" on Greenland Asked again if the breakup of the NATO alliance was a price worth paying to own Greenland, Trump said: "I think something's going to happen that's going to be good for everybody." He added: "I think that we'll work something out where NATO is going to be happy and we're going to be happy, but we need it for national security and for world security." Inflation Trump says he has to go soon because he has a phone call scheduled with President Erdogan of Turkey. He then claims that when he took office he inherited the highest rate of inflation of all time, which is laughably untrue, unless the Great Depression wasn't as Great as it was cracked up to be. In reality, the rate of inflation when he took office was about 2.9%. The highest ever 12 month CPI inflation rate change was 23.7% in 1920. Weird moment There was a deeply weird moment where Trump said he'd never seen the press room so full, and asked if this was a "celebration of the first year". And instead of the stony silence you'd expect from professional journalists, several people shouted "Yes!" and "Congratulations". Earlier he took a question from a "reporter" from Lindell TV, the streaming service owned by conspiracy theorist, serial defamer and pillow magnate Mike Lindell. Trump thinks EU investment deal will stand Asked if the US investment deal with the EU would go out of the window if he annexed Greenland and slapped tariffs on Europe, Trump said: "I doubt it. They need that agreement very badly with us. They really do. They fought very hard to get it, so I doubt that." He added: "We have a lot of meetings scheduled on Greenland...and I think things are going to work out pretty well, actually." He went on to say he would not attend Emmanuel Macron's proposed emergency G7 meeting in Paris, because, he said, Macron is about to leave office. Trump's chilling response to Greenland question Asked how far he's willing to go to own Greenland, Trump chillingly replied: "You'll find out." Trump says he's now against the deal to relinquish control of the Chagos Islands, despite previously backing it. "Well, you know when they originally were going to do it, I think they had some concept of ownership. But now they're looking to just do a lease and sell it. It's not like Greenland, but a reasonably important area of the globe..." (This is not accurate. The deal being voted through the Commons now is broadly the same as the one Trump approved of a few months ago). "I think they should keep it...I don't know why they're doing it. Do they need money?" Trump still "gets on" with Starmer and Macron Asked if he'd spoken to Keir Starmer or Emmanuel Macron since his Truth Social post this morning, Trump said: "I haven't, but I think I get along very well with them. They always treat me well. They're a little rough with me when I'm not around. But when I'm around they treat me very nicely. I like both of them. They're both liberal. They need to straighten out their countries. London you know, has a lot of problems. Paris, a lot of problems. They have two problems - immigration and energy. They gotta stop with the windmills. The UK has an unbelievable asset known as the North Sea." "...and here I am in a place called the White House." Trump is now complaining about being prosecuted and sued over offences he committed during and after his first term. "They gave me the worst of the worst," he said of the "sick, sick" prosecutors who (legally, properly) investigated or pursued him. "...and here I am in a place called the White House." He went on to celebrate that he'd defunded public media - including NPR and PBS - saying they were "very unfair". "NATO has to treat us fairly" "By the way, I did more for NATO than any person alive or dead. Nobody's done for NATO, and I think for the most part they'll tell you that. I think you could ask the Secretary General about that. He said it. I've done more for NATO than anybody. "But they have to treat us fairly to. 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 do question whether they'll come to ours. I'm just asking. Just sayin'." The only time article 5 of the NATO charter - which demands all members defend any member state under attack - has been invoked, was by the United States after 9/11. "Board of Peace" to replace United Nations Trump indicates the board of peace is intended to be a replacement for the United Nations. "We just created the board of peace, which is going to be amazing," he said of the body - which will reportedly cost countries $1 billion to join as a permanent member. "I wish the United Nations could do more. I wish we didn't need a board of peace, but with all the wars I settled the United Nations didn't help me in one war. I guess I'm not blaming them, I didn't call them to help. But we got the Presidents and Prime Ministers together and knocked heads together, they liked me, I liked them. Every single one of them nominated me for a Nobel Prize." What he didn't mention is that in each case his main negotiating tactic was to threaten the countries involved with insanely high tariff rates if they kept fighting. "Towns look better with troops on the streets" Trump says he prefers the look of Washington DC with troops on the streets - then lies about going to a restaurant. "To me a town looks better when you have military people...these are big strong guys," he said. "I feel much better seeing those people there. I went out a couple of times and went for dinner in DC. I walked right down the middle of the street, felt completely safe." This never happened. He visited one restaurant in Washington DC - Joe's Seafood - and took a huge contingent of secret service protection with him. He was driven the two blocks from the White House to the Restaurant in an armoured car. The Gulf of Trump Trump joked about calling it the "Gulf of Trump". "I was going to call it the Gulf of Trump but I thought I'd be killed if I did that. But I wanted to do it . I wanted to do it." He added: "I'm joking when I say that. I wasn't going to call it the Gulf of Trump" - complaining the media would report "Trump wanted to call it the Gulf of Trump, but was rebuffed by his people." Trump says he's sad about Renee Good's death because her parents were Trump fans Donald Trump said the death of Renee Good, who was shot in the head by an ICE agent while peacefully protesting in Minnesota, was sad - because her parents were Trump fans. He then dismissed her death as something that "just happens". "I felt horribly when I was told that the young woman...who had the tragedy, it's a tragedy, it's a horrible thing. When I learned her parents, and her father in particular ...I hope he still is but I dunno...was a tremendous Trump fan. He was all for Trump. He loved Trump. And I was told that by a lot of people...'oh he loves you'...It's so sad. It just...happens. So sad." Migrants "make our criminals look like babies" Trump launches an attack on migrants to the United States, claiming they "make our criminals look like babies". He said people used to say migrants were "very nice people, they're wonderful people they don't commit crime. No, they make our hell's angels look like babies....they make our criminals look like babies. They are some of the most vicious people anywhere in the world....they come from prisons in the Congo." Statistically, immigrants to the US are less likely to commit crimes than US born people, and neighbourhoods with high immigrant populations tend to have lower crime rates. Specifically undocumented migrants have the lowest homicide arrest rates, lower than half that of the US born population. Trump ramble continues Trump is still reading out lines from the "365 wins" document, one by one. It's unclear if he plans to read out all 365. If he does you might want to get comfortable and grab a snack, because we could be here for quite some time. He went on a long ramble about how some countries "emptied their mental institutions and insane asylums" and sent them to the United States, without naming any of the countries that did this, because none of it is true. In his "weaves", he's occasionally turning to a touchy subject - claiming ICE are just going after the "criminal" undocumented people and leaving those who work on farms and in hotels alone, which, again, is not true. "We'll have to pay tariffs back as best we can" Trump muses glumly about the looking Supreme Court case on whether his bonkers tariff plan was legal. "I don't know what the Supreme Court's going to do," he says. "To me it couldn't be plainer...they have a clause at the end saying 'or what is necessary'. I don't know how there's even a case there. "We've taken in hundreds of billions of dollars..." he says, suggesting that if the court rules against him the country would have to pay that back "as best we can". He adds: "I don't know how that's going to be done very easily without hurting a lot of people, but we're waiting for that case anxiously" Trump boasts about his accomplishments Several minutes into the press conference, Trump has turned to the theoretical reason for the event - how great he is. He's reading out highlights from the document "365 wins in 365 days", rambling for quite some time on each entry. It's exceptionally difficult to follow, and could go on for a while. He just told a story about how a police officer told him his wife loves him more now, because the success of the economy has increased his retirement savings account. "Paid agitators" Trump is now ranting about the killing of Renee Good in Minnesota last week, claiming the people protesting against ICE in the state are "paid agitators". "When the woman was shot I felt terribly about that," he said. "And I understand both sides of it, but there was another woman shouting shame...so loud, and so professional." The person shouting "shame" in the video has not been identified. There is no evidence that anybody protesting against ICE in Minnesota is a "paid agitator." Trump pivots to the Nobel Peace Prize Trump said "an unbelievable woman did a very nice thing" - by which he means Maria Corina Machado giving him her Nobel Peace Prize. But it appeared to take him a while to remember her name. "An unbelievably nice woman also did a very incredible thing, as you know, a few days ago," he said. "Uhh. We're talking to her and maybe we can get involved in some way. I'd love to be able to do that. Maria." He's still holding up the mugshots one at a time, occasionally mumbling rap sheets from the pages. "So this is what the people are trying to protect, because all ICE wants to do is get them out of our country." Trump is up - and almost immediately goes off topic Trump is up, and is proudly brandishing his "book" of the "wins" he's achieved in his first year in office. He almost immediately swerves off on to a tangent about the "vicious...many of them murderers" who ICE have allegedly arrested in Minnesota. He claims "most" of the crime in the US is "coming from out of the country", which is untrue. "They're drug lords...they're killers but they're mentally insane. These are just from Minnesota. In California it's worse." Gavin Newsom tells reporters Trump is a T-Rex, and not in a good way Gavin Newsom, the Governor of California, has been in Davos to counterprogram Trump's arrival tomorrow. And he had a message for European leaders at the summit: Buck your ideas up. "It's time to buck up," he told reporters. "And it's time to get serious. And stop being complicit. And it's time to stand tall and firm, have a backbone. I've seen this in the United States, a supine congress playing both sides. Saying one thing on a text or tweet and another thing publicly. It's time to have principles. It's time to stand tall and strong and stand united." He went on: "I can't take this complicity. People rolling over. I should have brought a bunch of knee-pads for all the world leaders. I mean, handing out crowns, and handing out...I mean, this is pathetic. Nobel Prizes, they're being given away. It's just pathetic. I hope people understand how pathetic they look on the world's stage. At least from an American perspective, it's embarrassing. "The Europeans should decide for themselves what they do, but what they can't do is what they've been doing. And they've been played. This guy is playing folks for fools and it's embarrassing." Asked about the prospect of talking Trump down, he laughed and said: "Diplomacy with Donald Trump? He's a T-Rex. You mate with him or he devours you. One or the other. The European could be [devoured] if they continue down this process." And in a point that will resonate with many, Newsom said: "A year ago we should have been having this conversation and they didn't. And now you're paying the price. It's exactly what any objective observer would have anticipated where we are today." Trump posts Truth Social spree ahead of press conference There was a collective sharp intake of breath this afternoon, when notifications started pinging up on phones that Donald Trump had been posting on Truth Social again. He started by posting a whole bunch of stuff about ICE and wild conspiracy theories. "The Department of Homeland Security and ICE must start talking about the murderers and other criminals that they are capturing and taking out of the system," he wrote, as if they've not been trying to spin their migrant purge that way since the campaign. He posted a video of a man in a trucker cap claiming that Somali Americans are too stupid to come up with a plan to defraud the US government on their own, and must be in the thrall of some kind of shadowy force in control of "them". And he retweeted a lengthy string of conspiracy theories about election rigging and voting machines, one of which was from an account called "QThestorm". At the time of writing, Trump's most recent post takes him back to the subject of Greenland and the Nato alliance. "No single person, or President, has done more for NATO than President Donald J. Trump," he wrote. "If I didn't come along, there would be no NATO right now!!! It would have been in the ash heap of History. Sad, but TRUE!!! President DJT." Trump to take to the podium? Members of the press in the White House briefing room noticed a change in the furniture that gives a hint of what we have coming from this briefing. Instead of the podium being blank, or having the White House logo on it as usual, it carries the Presidential seal - which means Trump himself is almost certainly going to address those present.