Could Greenland Become the 51st State?

KQED's Forum

KQED

Politics, News, News Commentary

4.2 • 726 Ratings

🗓️ 22 January 2026

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Donald Trump has made clear that he wants Greenland, and is willing to upset allies to get it. After escalating threats, on Tuesday, Trump said on Truth Social that he and the head of NATO now have a “framework” on a future Greenland deal and Trump said he would no longer impose punitive tariffs, but offered no other specifics. Why is the acquisition of this self-governing and autonomous territory of Denmark the focus of Trump’s expansionist appetites? We talk about Trump’s attempt to acquire Greenland and the repercussions of his latest foreign policy pivot. Guests: Eliot Cohen, Arleigh Burke Chair in Strategy, Center for Strategic and International Studies; contributing writer, The Atlantic; professor emeritus, Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) Susan Glasser, staff writer, The New Yorker; co-author, "The Divider: Trump in the White House, 2017-2021" Jeffrey Gettleman, global international correspondent, The New York Times Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:35.1	From KQED.
0:37.8	Welcome to Forum. I'm Alexis Madrigal.
0:41.3	No matter how we try to discuss Donald Trump's recent effort to acquire Greenland, it pales in
0:47.8	comparison to the crudeness and rudeness of how the president himself talks and posts about
0:51.9	the situation. At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in front of world political and business leaders,
0:58.8	let's just listen to 30 seconds of his speech.
1:02.0	I'm helping Europe. I'm helping NATO.
1:05.6	And until the last few days, when I told them about Iceland, they loved me.
1:11.6	They called me daddy, right?
1:13.6	Last time, a very smart man said, he's our daddy.
1:17.6	He's running it.
1:18.6	I was like running it.
1:19.6	I went from running it to being a terrible human being.
1:22.6	But now what I'm asking for is a piece of ice, cold and poorly located, that can play a vital
1:32.1	role in world peace and world protection.
1:36.7	It's a very small ask.
	...

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