Americanswers… On 5 Live! Can Donald Trump be talked down over Greenland?
Americast
BBC
4.3 • 3.1K Ratings
🗓️ 19 January 2026
⏱️ 33 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
As we mark one year of Donald Trump back as president of the United States, we answer your questions with Matt Chorley on 5 Live. We start with Greenland, and ask whether the president can be talked down from his threats to impose further tariffs on countries who oppose his takeover plan. What’s been the response of Republicans, and who has the biggest influence on Trump when it comes to foreign policy?
Also, the US president reportedly sent a letter to Norway’s prime minister Jonas Gahr Støre, saying Trump no longer feels ‘an obligation to think purely of Peace’ after they awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to Venzuela’s María Corina Machado. More text from his reported letter here: “Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America.”
The president has now said he will “100%” follow through on his threats to impose further tariffs on NATO countries if a deal over Greenland is not reached. Plus, after Trump told Iranians “help is on its way” following mass protests and killings, what happened behind the scenes for him not take military action?
And Robert F. Kennedy Jr has promised to ‘Make America Healthy Again’. When asked about Donald Trump’s diet, the health secretary said ‘I don’t know how he’s alive’, citing a diet of fast food, sugar and fizzy drinks. The team look at whether RFK Jnr is making ay progress on changing US eating habits, and what is happening with vaccinations for children.
HOSTS: • Justin Webb, Radio 4 presenter • Sarah Smith, North America Editor • Marianna Spring, Social Media Investigations Senior correspondent • Matt Chorley, 5 Live presenter
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This episode was made by Alix Pickles and Grace Reeve. The technical producer was Philip Bull. The series producer is Purvee Pattni. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:05.6 | The 20th of January, 2026 marks a year since Donald Trump took office for his second term. |
| 0:11.6 | What a year it has been. A year of activity. No question about that. A year of talk. Some of it quite wild. |
| 0:19.4 | A year of achievement. Well, we'll come to that in just a second. |
| 0:23.2 | So, for this anniversary week, there is, of course, a lot of news, a lot of news as well, |
| 0:28.3 | a lot of things that are happening, never mind the anniversary. And we're going to answer some |
| 0:32.5 | questions about that news right now. So how far is Donald Trump actually prepared to go when |
| 0:37.0 | it comes to getting |
| 0:37.6 | what he wants in Greenland? Are the Republicans who can talk him down? People are also asking about |
| 0:43.5 | the threats to impose tariffs on countries that oppose his plans for Greenland. And we're talking |
| 0:50.7 | about RFK as well. A really interesting question about whether RFK, |
| 0:54.9 | after he said that he was surprised the president was still alive, |
| 0:58.8 | given what he ate, |
| 1:00.0 | whether RFK is actually managing to change the diet of the whole country. |
| 1:04.3 | So we've been answering your questions. |
| 1:06.3 | Marianna, Sarah and Matt Chorley on Five Live. |
| 1:10.0 | Welcome to America Answers. |
| 1:13.9 | Ameriast. |
| 1:14.7 | Ameriast from BBC News. |
| 1:17.0 | When Donald Trump calls, they say, yes, sir. Right away, sir. Happy to lick your boot, sir. |
| 1:22.3 | We are the sickest country in the world. |
| 1:24.8 | Oh, dear. Are you worried that billionaires are going to go hungry? |
... |
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