From WNYC Studios.

I'm Brian Lehrer.

This is my daily politics podcast.

It's Wednesday, January 21st.

A year and a day into a second term, President Trump seems to be pushing the limits of presidential power,

I don't have to tell you that, right, but both on the domestic and international levels.

The administration has turned the blue state of Minnesota recently into a testing ground for

Trump's most extreme national policies, as many people see them, including door-to-door

mass deportation, you don't have to have committed a crime, et cetera, and the threat of military

deployments on U.S. soil, in addition to what ICE has already done there. He's also going after

those he sees as political enemies in Minnesota, pushing his Justice Department to

investigate Democrats, Governor Tim Walz, and Minneapolis mayor, Jacob Fry, who have been

outspoken against these policies. And the country of Greenland, as you've been hearing, is now

a testing ground for Trump's international policies, threatening even the future of NATO by threatening to annex another NATO member's territory

without the agreement of the rest of the NATO members,

and with or without military force, imposing an additional 10% tariff also on several European countries unless a deal is reached.

This is not using tariffs for trade purposes. This is using them as punishment or pressure to get them

to agree to the U.S. acquiring Greenland. Here is the president at the World Economic Forum in Davos

just this morning making some news on this.

We never asked for anything and we never got anything. We probably won't get anything unless I

decide to use excessive strength and force where we would be, frankly, unstoppable. But I won't do that.

Okay?

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