Next Steps In Venezuela, GOP 2026 Roadmap, Greenland and Europe
Up First from NPR
NPR
4.5 • 52.8K Ratings
🗓️ 7 January 2026
⏱️ 14 minutes
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Summary
Facing tough midterm elections in 2026, Trump tells House Republicans he’s struggling to understand voters and leans into culture-war issues rather than cost-of-living concerns.
And European leaders rally around Greenland, pushing back on Trump’s renewed claims that the United States needs the territory for national security.
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Today’s episode of Up First was edited by Rebekah Metzler, Kelsey Snell, Kate Bartlett, Mohamad ElBardicy, and Alice Woelfle.
It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Nia Dumas and Christopher Thomas.
We get engineering support from Stacey Abbott. And our technical director is Carleigh Strange.
Our Supervising Producer is Michael Lipkin.
(0:00) Introduction
(01:59) Next Steps In Venezuela
(05:47) GOP 2026 Roadmap
(09:32) Greenland and Europe
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Nicolas Maduro is out of power, but his regime in Venezuela is still firmly in place. |
| 0:07.4 | President Trump says the U.S. will run the country and U.S. companies will rebuild oil infrastructure. |
| 0:12.5 | But what is the actual plan? |
| 0:14.4 | I am Michelle Martin. That's Lila Fado, and this is up first from NPR News. |
| 0:20.8 | President Trump told House Republicans he is struggling to understand voters as his party |
| 0:25.4 | braces for tough mid-term elections. |
| 0:27.3 | But I wish you could explain to me what the hell's going on with the mind of the public |
| 0:33.2 | because we have a, we have the right policy. |
| 0:36.4 | Does Trump's strategy match what voters say they want? |
| 0:39.2 | And European leaders are uniting around Greenland after new U.S. threats to take the territory. |
| 0:45.2 | Trump says the U.S. needs it for national security. |
| 0:47.8 | And Europe says Greenland's borders are not up for grabs. |
| 0:51.2 | Stay with us. |
| 0:51.9 | We'll give you the news you need to start your day. |
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| 1:27.2 | President Trump continues to suggest a lengthy and active U.S. role in Venezuela after capturing leader Nicholas Maduro. |
| 1:35.1 | Well, he said the U.S. will run Venezuela for a period. |
| 1:38.5 | Trump has proposed several plans for the future of Venezuela's government and economy, |
| 1:42.6 | with U.S. companies playing a key role. And now apparently Venezuela is handing over oil to the U.S. NPR's Franco Ordonez joins us now to talk about all of this. Hey, Franco. Hey, Lila. Okay, so many questions about what's next for Venezuela. And it feels like everything is kind of happening ad hoc. Does the president have a plan? I mean, there really are |
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