Trump’s Greenland End Game and His Showdown with Europe and NATO, Plus Iran’s Next Chapter Revealed, with Ben Ferguson, Yemisi Egbewole, and Morton Halperin

Next Up with Mark Halperin

MK Media

News, Daily News, Politics

4.6 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 15 January 2026

⏱️ 70 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Mark kicks off today’s episode with his reported monologue on the white-hot fight over Greenland — and why Donald Trump’s push to bring the island under U.S. control is no longer just a provocative headline, but a brewing transatlantic clash with Denmark, Europe, NATO, and many of the 56,000 Greenlanders . He walks through the high-stakes national security argument, the political pressure building on all sides, and what this growing confrontation could mean for America’s standing in the Arctic and beyond. Then Morton Halperin joins the show to map out what a serious U.S. strategy toward Iran should be, including how America can support democratic change without blundering into another destabilizing conflict. Mark and Morton Halperin discuss what a post-theocracy Iran could look like, what U.S. policy should prioritize now, and what may come next as tensions escalate. Finally, Ben Ferguson and Yemisi Egbewole weigh in on how the Greenland fight could end — and what it ultimately means for Trump’s legacy. The conversation also zooms out to the bigger political landscape, as they break down why both parties remain trapped in Trump-era politics heading into the midterms and the early stages of the 2028 race. ExpressVPN: Visit https://ExpressVPN.com/MARK to find out how you can get up to four extra months. Bank On Yourself: Discover the retirement plan banks Don't want you to know about—get your free report at https://BankOnYourself.com/Mark

Transcript

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0:00.0	Oh, Nexters, welcome to Next Up with me, Mark Kalprin.
0:05.3	Thank you for watching.
0:06.0	I'm editor-in-chief of the live interactive video platform two-way and the host here to bring you a preview of everything that's coming next up.
0:13.5	Grateful to you for tuning in.
0:15.3	Hope you're glad you want to spend the time together because there's lots of stuff going on here at home,
0:19.9	but also no shortage of
0:21.0	consequential foreign policy news overseas, Greenland, Iran, Venezuela, Russia, et cetera, et cetera.
0:28.7	So in my reported monologue today, I'm super excited about this. We've all been talking about
0:33.1	Greenland for a while. I did some reporting with folks in the administration on Capitol Hill and some foreign policy analysts, but a lot of my reporting today is more like my research monologue. I decided I need to know more about Greenland than I did two days ago. So I'm going to have some great stuff to share with you that I learned about Greenland and some analysis about where this whole thing is going,
0:55.2	a very uniquely Trump story. We'll walk through it and why it matters. And again, hopefully get to
0:59.9	what's coming next up. Why is the United States interested in Greenland? After that, three great guests to
1:05.4	talk about Greenland and more. My dad, Morton H. Halpern, longtime foreign policy and will be here to walk through
1:13.4	what Donald Trump's doing with Greenland and how the whole thing could be resolved. Ben Ferguson
1:18.3	will be here, a great talker, conservative. And then Yemisi Agb Wally will be here as well. The two of
1:23.8	them will talk a little foreign, but also some domestic. And I'm looking forward to getting their thoughts on everything. Before that, though, here is my reported monologue
1:33.3	on Greenland. This is such an interesting story to me. It's a huge story. And we saw this week
1:39.5	in Washington at the senior most levels, the foreign ministers of both Denmark and Greenland coming to the United States,
1:47.6	meeting with the vice president of the United States, J.D. Vance, with Marco Rubio, the president,
1:51.8	talking about this topic on social media in White House photo opportunities. It's a huge question.
1:57.4	And the president's made it clear that he's in conflict, not just with Denmark and
2:01.9	Greenland, but with all of Europe, basically, over this question of who will control Greenland. And the
2:07.3	president has said, no compromise, no kind of halfway measure. He wants it all. He wants the
	...

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