Americanswers… On 5 Live! Can Donald Trump be talked down over Greenland?

0:00This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. The United States is about to mark its 250th anniversary. And so on the Global Story podcast from the BBC, we're telling surprising tales of American influence on the world stage and in ordinary people's lives all across the globe. We have this ability to export our story and a lot of people have bought it. I feel like the American dream is alive but not well. From the BBC, it's the United States at 2.50. Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts. The 20th of January, 2026 marks a year since Donald Trump took office for his second term.

0:43What a year it has been. A year of activity, no question about that. A year of talk, some of it quite wild. A year of achievement, well, we'll come to that in just a second. So for this anniversary week, there is, of course, a lot of news, a lot of news as well, a lot of things that are happening, never mind the anniversary. And we're going to answer some questions about that news right now. So how far is Donald Trump actually prepared to go when it comes to getting what he wants in Greenland? Are there Republicans who can talk him down? People are also asking about the threats to impose tariffs on countries that oppose his plans for Greenland.

1:21And we're talking about RFK as well. a really interesting question about whether RFK, after he said that he was surprised the president was still alive, given what he ate, whether RFK is actually managing to change the diet of the whole country. So we've been answering your questions, Marianna, Sarah and Matt Chorley on Five Live. Welcome to America Answers. AmeriCast. AmeriCast from BBC News. When Donald Trump calls, they say, yes, sir, right away, sir. Happy to lick your boot, sir. We are the sickest country in the world. Oh, dear. Are you worried that billionaires are going to go hungry? Of course the president supports peaceful protests.

2:02What a stupid question. Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein?

2:12Does a year in office get marked in Washington, sir? Surprisingly not. I thought Donald Trump would be throwing himself a party for this, and not least to crow about all the achievements that he says he's made over the course of the last 12 months and to point out how much he's gotten done. But in fact, I don't think we're even going to see him on the anniversary, which is technically tomorrow. He's going to be on a plane to Davos where he's giving a speech on Wednesday. And he's out of sight today as well, down at his residence in Florida because it's a public holiday today. So we're not going to see very much of him at all.

2:41You wonder whether it's because he thinks, well, I can talk about these achievements, but also people will use it to evaluate whether I've actually delivered on the things I said I would, which isn't always that helpful. Well, we have had a lot of questions about Greenland. So let's just sort of lump them all together and then we can pick through them. Jason asks, what of senior US Republicans, will they speak out on the question of Greenland? Steve's emailed, could you explain, please, what are the other politicians doing? Are they whimpering in their offices? Let's start with the Republicans.

3:11Where are they on this? Sarah? Well, a few are sort of making clear that they're not terribly comfortable with what Donald Trump's saying about Greenland without being too heavily critical. So the House Speaker, for instance, Mike Johnson, was actually on the BBC on Laura Kunzberg's show when he said that he doesn't foresee a military intervention and that diplomatic channels are the way to go. Well, I mean, Donald Trump may not actually have heard that from Mike Johnson, given the slightly undiplomatic language he's been using more recently about Greenland. But that's kind of typical of mainstream Republicanism, not attacking Donald Trump, but sort of basically hinting they don't agree with it.

3:48A few more fourth-born Republicans have come out. Tom Tillis says he is sick of stupid when he talks of the advice that's been given to the president on this matter. Republican John Kennedy of Louisiana says that the idea of invading Greenland is weapons-grade stupid. And a few others have come out and said similar things. Lisa Murkowski saying Greenland needs to be viewed as an ally, not as an asset. But I have to say the list of Republicans prepared to be really critical about this are a kind of list of usual suspects, people who are retiring at the midterms or have been critical of Donald Trump before.

4:21What's not happened yet, and actually I suspect may not happen, is people using this as the final straw to say, right, Donald Trump has now gone so far, I'm going to have to publicly start criticising him because I don't think the strength of feeling among politicians in America, it's quite where it is at as it is in Europe. There's a really good example of that with John Cornyn. So he's the Texas senator, been around forever, weighty figure, but he's facing a primary if he wants to carry on in the Senate. So it's really interesting. You know, we've got these midterms that we constantly talk about in November of this year.

4:55If you're a Republican politician looking to come back to Washington, D.C., you need first to get over the hurdle of the primary, either not to be primary, so you keep your ability to go to the general election, or win that primary. And in those terms, those primaries starting actually pretty soon, I think. So in those terms, they are still as hamstrung as they have been before about going for Donald Trump because they run the risk inside the party that they actually lose their careers, and it's a proper risk as well. So that sort of explains it. Just the other reason why, which I think we sometimes, I know Americans all know this and people have been to the States sort of do.

5:37But you can't overestimate how big America is and how much you are not constantly wondering about Greenland or indeed about Ukraine or indeed about the Middle East. And so as a politician, you don't need to have necessarily a view on all this stuff in the way that here people do and the politicians do and you're liable to be asked about it, etc., etc. You can get through most of your life, particularly if you're a house of representatives. You just don't, this stuff doesn't come. If you live in Baton Rouge or normal Illinois or I don't know, anywhere, the middle bits or indeed on the coast as well, frankly, there's an awful lot else going on.

6:15And we sometimes, our perspective, I think, sometimes in this country of America and of the importance of all of this is too much. I was stuck out to you this morning. I went on the New York Times website and the Greenland story was sort of halfway down the homepage. I mean, it's now at the top, I think. And that's the New York Times. I mean, they are really interesting. They're super interesting. So, you know, you go to the Houston Chronicle, or the thing is there aren't that many local papers left, but you go to somewhere where the New York Times is not read, and I can guarantee you they're not talking about Greenland, certainly at the top of the agenda.

6:48But one thing that's quite interesting is, like there you're talking about traditional newspapers, which, if we're honest with ourselves, quite a lot of people don't read anymore. And actually the places that they're looking for what's going on, social media feeds are full of like Greenland memes. But these memes are almost like either making a complete joke of the whole thing or like people in absolute meltdown. Like, oh my gosh, how is this happening? Why is this happening? Lots of people outside of America, but lots of Americans will be seeing that content popping up on their feeds. And I think it's quite interesting that it feels like it's such a central topic of conversation online.

7:22And I don't know, for me, it's felt like that ultimate tension between the sort of like memification of politics, which is like everyone can kind of take the mick out of things all the time and then suddenly it reaches a point where everyone kind of goes, oh, hang on, is this funny? It's a bit like when Maduro, you know, when everything happened with Venezuela and Maduro and there were all those memes of him in his tracksuit and everything else. It was kind of like, oh, OK, this is like being made funny but also it's kind of quite like politically serious. How are we going to deal with that? That's what this all feels like.

7:51It's like everyone doesn't quite know what to take seriously anymore and what not to take seriously. I've just looked actually on the homepage of the Houston Chronicle. Why D 'Ameco Ryans stood by CJ Stroud despite four turnovers in playoff loss is the top story. I don't actually understand that. I don't understand any of that. I rest my case. I feel like I don't speak that language. I believe it is American football. And, yeah, their top story is, I mean, the subheader doesn't make a lot of sense. You have to go two or three chunks down before you get to Greenland. So we need an interesting insight there.

8:23On the subject of Greenland, we've also had this voice note from Mera Kaster Sawa in Australia. I keep hearing Donald Trump talking about the risk for Greenland to be invaded by Russia or China, and now Europe is actually increasing the military presence there in response to it. I haven't heard discussions about the actual risk for Greenland. Is it real? Are Russia or China really planning to invade it? Thank you very much. No, it's not real in as much as they're not planning to invade it. We know of no current plans to invade it. But the issue isn't really that. The issue is the extent to which as the ice melts because of climate change, the extent to which those countries can not only use the territory around Greenland, the sea around Greenland, more for their offensive potentially military operations and particularly against the United States because it's a place where they could base weapons that could reach the US very quickly.

9:21But also, in the longer term, they could have their own basis there because this place was largely ice, and in the longer term future, it seems won't be. So that's the issue. It's not so much Russians turning up in Greenland all of a sudden. It's what happens in the seas around it. In fact, we've got Eddie in Leighton Buzzard on the line. Are you there, Eddie? Yeah. Eddie, what is your question for the American casters? What do they think is Trump's endgame? really ultimately decide that, well, the ultimate threat, as the reliance on the states, is to withdraw from NATO. Yeah, his great threat is pulling out of NATO because Donald Trump doesn't think that would do America any harm.

9:59He says again and again and again, it is only because America's part of NATO that anybody, Russia, China, any other adversary, is scared of it in any way, that without America there is no NATO. And he obviously doesn't think that Britain, Germany, Denmark, whomsoever's contribution to NATO is terribly valuable. So I don't think he thinks he would harm America's defence or strategy in any way at all. And I think he would rather have Greenland because his endgame is not to get Greenland better defended or to have more American bases there or bigger military presence. He can do any of that right now without making any changes whatsoever.

10:34I mean, it would appear to be that his end game really is to own Greenland in order to enlarge the territory of the United States, in order to have added something significantly to the landmass as well as the strategic value he sees in Greenland. Eddie, good to speak to you. Thank you very much for your question. We need to move on because we've got so many questions on a number of topics. Marianna, can I ask you about the reaction to the letter to the Norwegian Prime Minister, Jonas Garstor? So this is the letter which says, Dear Jonas, this is from Donald Trump. Considering your country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped eight wars plus, in capitals, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America.

11:21Denmark cannot protect that land from Western China and why do they have a right of ownership? Anyway, he goes on to say, and then he finishes it off with, the world is not secure unless we have complete and total control of Greenland. Thank you. Thank you for your attention to this matter. It's disappointing you didn't say that. He didn't have that. But Matt's mug does. I've still got it on my mug. No, he only does that for social media posts, not letters. For me, it feels like quintessential rage bait. Everybody who doesn't like Donald Trump has quote tweeted it saying, look at this, can you believe he's done this?

11:49I mean, it feels like peak presidential trolling. But it kind of comes back to that question of what I was saying, which is it's quite hard to tell what is serious and what is not serious. And so with this letter, you're like, is it? Is he serious? Is he kind of joking? Like, is he not joking? Is he trolling? And it gets the reaction. It provokes the reaction. But maybe the whole point is that we don't quite know if it's serious or not and nor do the world leaders of any of these other countries. That is the line which is leading the New York Times now. So it has pushed it back up to the news outlets.

12:19Yeah, because it's a new thing and it gets attention and it grabs headlines and it gets loads of eyeballs on places like X because people are resharing it. You know, we're all used to seeing those sort of formal letters that are shared by, you know, when someone resigns or something in the UK government. It's like that, except it's completely not following any of the usual etiquette. And if you make, as I've seen some media outlets say, if you make a distinction between the Norwegian government and the actual committee prize people of the Nobel Prize, and you say, hang on a second, he's wrong because the government doesn't actually award the Nobel Prize, the committee members award, you are falling into a massive trap, which, of course, we've all fallen into at various stages, which is trying to fact check Donald Trump.

13:06It doesn't work. And that's the point of it. He knows if you start saying things like that, everyone will just completely switch off from what you're saying. Here's a question, Sarah. Would the world be in a different place if they had just given him the Nobel Peace Prize? Possibly. Although I don't think it would have stunted his ambitions for Greenland. It might just mean that he wasn't sending communications like that to the Norwegian Prime Minister. Maybe he'd be so happy he would have waited six months before he delved into this. But had he been given the Nobel Peace Prize, Would he still have sent forces in to capture the president of Venezuela?

13:41Because it was many ways the success of that operation that has spurred him on to be thinking about the other things he wants to achieve on the world stage. He's really, really buoyed up by what happened in Venezuela. And, you know, there are a lot of people saying doing that sort of thing, capturing, kidnapping presidents of other countries, not necessarily what you should be doing if you're still campaigning for a Nobel Peace Prize. Would it have stopped him doing that? Probably not. So, yeah, I mean, I think there's a couple of things that have happened in the last weeks we wouldn't have seen if we'd been given the Peace Prize.

14:10But ultimately, no, he's desperately serious about Greenland, I think. It's just it's taken us a year to work that out. It's only in the last fortnight or so. It's really the pennies dropped in our heads that he really, really means this. He's been serious about it all along, I think. Right. Let's move on because we've got another question. This is from Andrew in Edinburgh. Good morning. There is much current focus on foreign matters by President Trump. How is his domestic dashboard looking? Yeah, how do things look domestically, Sarah? So what's going on in Minnesota is an ongoing issue after the shooting, what was it, 10 days ago, of Renee Goode, the woman who was protesting against the ice raids in Minnesota.

14:50There have been protests every single day. There are now something like 3 ,000 ice agents in the city compared to somewhere that has 600 police officers in it. The governor has readied the National Guard in case they need to come in to keep order. Donald Trump is talking about invoking the Insurrection Act so that he can send military forces into Minnesota. The mayor and the governor are being investigated by the Justice Department to see if they've committed any criminal offences, as they've apparently been getting in the way of federal officers doing their work. I mean, it is an astonishing tinderbox in Minnesota.

15:27And I wouldn't be surprised if we hear more about that in the coming days or weeks as well, because there are protests, counter protests, all sorts of things going on in the city as the ice raids are continuing all the time and more and more protesters are being arrested. So that is a huge focus of debate still inside America. And as ever, questions about the economy rumble on with Donald Trump insisting, basically, that Americans have never had it so good and that they should be grateful for falling prices and rising wages. whilst most people are saying that they fundamentally do not feel that when they're at the grocery store.

16:00And, you know, he's only got a few months to hope that people's wallets are feeling much healthier. Otherwise, it's really going to get punished in the mid-term elections for that, I think. And you have this weird thing, which we mentioned before, where the inflation figures haven't been fiddled, but they are probably not very reliable at the moment because of the government shutdown that there was. So there wasn't the ability to get the detail of what price changes there were. So a lot of people, a lot of the stats just reflect a zero price change where actually there probably was one. So in fact, even the official picture for inflation is hazy.

16:36And in some things, particularly electricity, it is unquestionably higher than is comfortable for Donald Trump. So yeah, no, he's not out of the woods on the economy by any means. Before we go, I want to finish on Robert F. Kennedy Jr. because we had this voice note from Priscilla. So my question is, Robert F. Kennedy built much of his public profile on reforming the US food and health system. I just want to know, since he entered the political mainstream, has he actually maintained any of these reformed positions? Has he gone soft of them? Which ones has he abandoned? Which ones is he still working on?

17:16Thank you. One thing we do know is one thing that he is working on is Donald Trump's own diet. Here's RFK Jr. speaking on the Katie Miller podcast last week. You know, the interesting thing about the president is that he eats really bad food, which is McDonald's and then, you know, candy and Diet Coke. But he drinks the Diet Coke all times. He has the constitution of a deity. I don't know how he's alive. If you travel with him, you get this idea that he's just pumping himself. full of poison all day long. And you don't know how he's walking around, much less being the most energetic person any of us have ever met.

17:59I'd like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to know that I have a normal Coke to drink every day. Full fat. Full fat. She also has the constitution of a deity. It tells you something, I think. Sarah, you must have been, when you were reading around Donald Trump, you must have seen him eating. I have never, in all honesty, seen him eating. I have, however, once or twice, managed to speak to people who, an occasion where he was being hosted, if he was giving a speech, was the person sent out to get him his rider, essentially, what he needs. And it's always two Big Macs and two Cokes. So there is no doubt whatsoever that that is what he lives on and well-cooked steak with ketchup when he's in a restaurant.

18:35So, I mean, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is absolutely right about that. Now, one of the things that he has done is come out with new dietary guidelines. And Donald Trump slightly goes along with them because he's very into Americans eating more protein and particularly more meat. So Donald Trump does all right on that. But he is very against processed foods and added sugar. So the Coke wouldn't work there. But he's kind of inverted the pyramid of foods that people are supposed to eat. So it's not grains anymore. And it's certainly not low fat food that often has a lot of sugar added to it. And whole milk.

19:07They're very, very into whole milk, this administration. And people are advised to have three portions of full fat dairy a day now in America. So there's been a big emphasis on changing what the food recommendations are. And a lot of people in this space who are, you know, left, right wing or none of the above are much in agreement with Robert F. Kennedy when it comes to food and getting food dyes out of what we eat and other additives. On the other hand, he's actually moved very fast to change the vaccine regimen as well. And a whole bunch of vaccines that were either strongly recommended or compulsory for kids to get aren't anymore.

19:42So although they will still get measles, mumps, rubella, polio, vaccinations like that, no longer will they necessarily get hepatitis A, hepatitis B, other meningitis vaccines, that kind of thing. So there's been a massive controversy about that. So in many ways, this is exactly what RFK is about. People who are very, very worried about the way in which he's anti-vax, but also very, very pleased in what they think he's doing for the health of Americans when it comes to food and nutrition. And I suppose that's an example of that being a sort of purely domestic policy. It doesn't break out internationally quite the same way.

20:13I did see that clip of Donald Trump when he was talking about whole milk and he said it's whole with a W for those of you that have a problem. And I wondered whether he'd only just learned that it wasn't whole spelt H-O-L-E.

20:30OK, we've just come off the air with Matt Chorley on Five Live, the live bit of the show. Marianna has gone to do other things. Sarah's still here. We're still answering your questions. And we want to go back to a year of Trump because we've had this voice note from Jonas in Denmark. On Five Live, I believe it was Sarah who said that Trump had a habit of doing outrageous things that you could not possibly believe he would ever do, for him to then turn around and actually do them. My question to you then is, what other outlandish things has Trump said that you didn't believe at the time, but he might actually do anyway?

21:09Oh, that's interesting, isn't it, Justin? So, I mean, the first things that come to mind in terms of outlandish things that have not yet come true are making Canada the 51st state. For a long time, he wanted to seize Panama and the Panama Canal, make that American again. And then, of course, there were some of the things he said about Gaza early in the Middle East peace process, where he was talking about turning it into the Riviera of the Middle East. And there were sort of ideas of Trump towers and hotels and things lining the Gaza Strip, which all seemed very, very fanciful. and none of those have come to pass yet, although they do probably still give us an idea of the direction of travel that he's going in, even if we don't literally accept that that's some of the things he wants to do.

21:49A year in, though, Justin, what else has he done now that began to seem normal but at the beginning we just couldn't believe? Well, I suppose, I mean, ice on the streets of Minnesota and other places as well, other states as well. The degree of violence employed, we were told at first that it was just going to be the people they were going to chuck out of the country. And this was always the plan to chuck out people from America who did not have the legal right to be there. But then they would say, well, we're going to start with the criminals, obviously, and then we'll think about the others somewhere down the line.

22:24And to an extent, that has been the case. They have chucked out some criminals. And they would say, I think, that they're still prioritising criminals. But it's obviously gone a lot further than that. And I think that, you know, on the serious side of the ledger, as it were, I think he's done much more and much more violently there than we realised. And, you know, in a sense almost that he's comfortable with and he's got this adviser, Stephen Miller, and other people behind the scenes who've suggested to him it's a good idea. He hasn't always suggested, at least in public, that he's completely comfortable with people being chased around the parking lots of big stores or people working on farmland, et cetera, et cetera.

23:02But it's fair to say it has gone further than people thought at the time or a lot of people thought at the time it would go. But a lot of the other stuff, you know, some of those things you just mentioned, Sarah, I mean, obviously birthright citizenship. They were going to stop people being born in America, being simply having the right to be citizens because they were born in America, which is a great sort of American iconic thing. I mean, they still sort of want to do it, don't they? It's gone to the courts, gone to the Supreme Court. Yeah, we're waiting for the Supreme Court to rule on that before they decide if he can do it or not.