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Politics Weekly UK

Taco Thursday: Trump climbs down on Greenland tariffs

Politics Weekly UK

The Guardian

News, Politics

4.01.4K Ratings

🗓️ 22 January 2026

⏱️ 33 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

John Harris is joined by Pippa Crerar and Kiran Stacey to discuss Donald Trump’s climbdown on tariffs over his move to buy Greenland. Plus, Labour MP Andrew Gwynne is to stand down, which could open the way for Andy Burnham to take his seat. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/politicspod

Transcript

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0:00.0

This is The Guardian.

0:09.7

We fought for Denmark.

0:11.4

We weren't fighting for anyone else.

0:12.9

We were fighting to save it.

0:14.7

Big, beautiful piece of ice.

0:17.0

It's hard to call it land.

0:18.1

It's a big piece of ice.

0:20.5

Yes, it's him again. And another huge political week, this time ending with a climb down on Greenland from Donald Trump.

0:27.6

Kirstama has finally managed to stand up to the president a bit. So is this the new normal? We'll see.

0:34.1

I'm John Harris and you're listening to Politics Weekly for The Guardian.

0:40.3

Joining me today at my Politics Weekly co-host, political editor Piper Kira and the Guardian's policy editor Kieran Stacey.

0:46.6

Hello to you both.

0:47.6

Hello, John.

0:48.8

What a week.

0:50.7

Every morning, every afternoon, every evening something changes.

0:55.1

I suppose what has remained through this week is this bracing sense that we are definitely absolutely 100% in a new world, a new sort of foreign policy reality.

1:04.1

I mean, after all of it and through all of it, really, I felt a very familiar mixture of fascination and slightly nauseous fear, I would say. How have you felt going through the first three or four days this week? That probably sums it up brilliantly, John. I think I'll speak from Yankee here and to say we probably had the same, you know, we're news junkies. So nothing like better than sitting through, you know, Donald Trump's speeches and finding out what's going on in the international stage, what's going on behind closed doors and Downing Street, where everyone thinks about it. But at the same time, step back from it, the reality is that we're living in quite a scary world at the moment, quite an unpredictable world. And in our case, quite a sleepless world. I mean, I got to the end of the day on Monday and thought, oh my goodness, it feels like a week's gone by in just a day. And here we are, several

1:44.9

days on. And it feels several months, it feels like it's several months has passed. We are nearly at

1:48.5

the end of the week. So, you know, let's hope that Donald Trump gets... That's what you think. Well, we hope he's on his way tomorrow. Lago for a spot of golf and stays away from international Well, he didn't sleep apparently very much on the way over to Davos, so maybe he's going to get a bit more sleep on the way back home and calm down and little bit.

2:03.9

And we can do the. didn't sleep apparently very much on the way over to Davos. So maybe he's going to get a bit more

2:01.0

sleep on the way back home and calm down a little bit. And we can do the same. What larks.

2:06.2

Okay, it's been about 12 hours since it was announced that Donald Trump had decided to retreat,

...

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