Trump’s Greenland ‘deal,’ and Democrats’ midterm math

0:00So I actually met Dan. I did not know that he was a reporter. I met Dan on the basketball court. I was guarding him like 10 years ago. And I play basketball even though my wife insists that I'm way too old to play still. And I hurt my pinky, which people can't see sadly because it's audio. No, it's video. Show them that pinky. This pinky. And I've been in the group chat talking about how I'm a big guy. I have a small pinky and everybody's making fun of it. But there's a picture on the front of the Washington Post of my injured hand raised asking Donald Trump a question that I immediately sent to the group chat, like immediately.

0:41And they've been talking smack. Just in case viewers, listeners are wondering, Cleve was a very good basketball player, still is a very good basketball player. I will slide you$20 later.

0:54From the newsroom of The Washington Post, this is Post Report's weekly politics roundtable. I'm Kolbe Ekowitz. It's Friday, January 23rd. Today we're discussing the latest from President Trump's visit to Davos, an elite annual gathering in Switzerland. We'll hear about his negotiations over Greenland and his power on the world stage. We'll also talk midterms and why Democrats think they just might be able to win the Senate. Back at the table with me today is Dan Marica, co-anchor of our politics newsletter, The Early Brief. And we have with us at the table, White House reporter Cleve Woodson. Guys, thanks for being here.

1:27Happy to be here. Great to be back. So guys, I want to start with the fact that this week marks a year since Trump's second inauguration. Just a year. And yes, that also struck me. I was just saying the same exact thing. I was like, how has it only, it's been like 10 years. I know. That's by design, I feel. I have aged. To mark the anniversary earlier this week, he came to the White House briefing room to talk to reporters. A very crowded White House briefing room. Well, yeah, because Cleve, you were there. You were actually in the room. And I'm just hoping you can kind of take us inside, peel back the curtain a little bit.

2:02What was it like? So it leaked a little early, maybe an hour or two before the briefing, that President Trump was going to be there on Tuesday. It's not surprising. It's, you know, a year anniversary. You know, it makes sense, right? And so I'm like, OK, I'm going to I'm going to get there a little bit early. I got there about a half an hour, a half an hour early. And it took me 10 minutes to get to my seat. And my seat is six feet from the door. And it took me 10 minutes to just squeeze through the throng of reporters and photographers and just people who were just hoping to ask the president a question.

2:37Also, Greenland was a big deal. Trump was about to head off to Davos. And so everybody wanted to ask, you know, whatever question they've been writing over, writing down and pouring over all day, they wanted to ask Trump. And, you know, we sat there for about 30 or 40 minutes waiting for him to come out. And then he came out and it was just. Wow, that's a big crowd. That's a lot of people. I think it's like a record. It was a lot. It was a lot. How so? Well, it's not unusual for people who are speaking at the White House lectern to have opening remarks. Trump's opening remarks lasted 80 minutes.

3:1780 minutes. They handed out this sheet. This is before he took any questions. This is before any interrogative statement at all. They handed out this paper that was like 365 wins in 365 days, which again, something politicians do or whatever. And I was like, he's going to go over the highlights. And I was in my mind. I'm just sitting there thinking, is he going to talk about all 365? My colleague, Matt Visor, I was in the room and Matt Visor was charged with writing the story and kind of linking it, you know, finding a through line and connective tissue. And I saw Matt afterwards and I was like, good luck, buddy.

3:58Because there were just so many like kind of wildly disparate topics. Well, it was, to your point, like quite rambling and unfocused. He was all over the place, right? I mean, what are some of the things that he was talking about? I had a list going. And at some point I ran out of paper. He talked about playing Little League and his mom talking about mental institutions and how that relates to crime in cities. He talked about Columbus Day. Officially reinstated, Columbus Day. I like the name Columbus Day. The Italian people are very happy about it. Remember, when you go to the voting booths, I reinstated Columbus Day.

4:35That was an easy one. Talked about refurbishing the White House. He talked about the Gulf of Mexico or the Gulf of America or maybe possibly renaming it the Gulf of Trump. There is just. Wait, he said that? I was going to call it the Gulf of Trump, but I thought that I would be killed if I did that. I wanted to do it. I wanted to. My people work so hard. Sir, I don't think it'll look too good. I'm telling you, it's a good thing. Yeah, he joked. He joked that. And then he said, I shouldn't say that because. I don't know. He's renamed other things. So I'm joking. You know, when I say that I was not going to call it the Gulf of Trump because tomorrow Trump wanted to call it the Gulf of Trump, but he was rebuffed by his people.

5:18It seems like the better question is, what didn't he talk about during this press briefing visit? Yeah, I think. Right. Yes, exactly. I mean, the one thing he didn't talk about during his 80-minute opening statement was Greenland. And then everybody asked him about Greenland and Davos and all that stuff. And his answer was basically, you know, kind of an ominous, oh, you'll see. And I think what set this apart is that his speeches are usually to an audience that adores him and that applauds him and that gives him a lot of feedback. And he seemingly feeds off of that. What's been interesting this week is he's given two sets of remarks to an audience that does not adore him.

5:53and does not clap at everything he says and has questions for him or has, in Davos' case, has issues with him. And so I think you see the president interacting in a way that he doesn't usually interact. You know, that, yes, he takes questions from the press, but in the press brief room is unique. He doesn't speak like that to an audience that doesn't applaud everything he says. So it's a different forum, really, for the president of the United States. And I think you saw that in how kind of meandering and unfocused it was. A lot of what I think about with Trump is thinking about where Biden was at the same point in his presidency or even later points in the presidency because they have a lot of, you know, they are diametrically opposed on a lot of issues, but they have a lot in common.

6:34They're both men who've aspired to the top of American politics and do not believe they've gotten enough credit for what they have accomplished. And to Dan's point, part of the reason that there were so many just disparate topics, it just seemed like Trump was like, I've done this and I've done this and I've done this. And you're not going to report on this, but I've also done this. And, you know, like love them or hate them. Trump is a president who has done a lot of the things that he said that he would do when he got into office. Some people hate those things. Some people love those things.

7:11And I think that he one of the in fact, one of the things that he said was, you know, I don't feel like I am getting enough credit for, you know, quote unquote, the good that I have brought into America. And just trying to make that argument over and over again in the briefing room to a room of skeptical reporters and then trying to do the same thing across the Atlantic in Davos. You know, this is what I've done. These are the things that I've accomplished. Like, look at this. Yeah. Well, never is a good look, though. And it wasn't for President Biden and certainly not for President Trump to be begging the world for confirmation of your successes.

7:47Right. Like they should speak for themselves. And the fact that he has to go out there and say, well, look, I'm doing a great job. Tell me that I'm doing a great job. Maybe suggests that people don't feel that way. I think to some degree, every president feels like they don't get the credit they deserve for the work that they do. I think what's interesting about the last, I guess, two presidents, one Trump term, a Biden term, and now another Trump term, is that there's this mass distrust in all institutions right now. Voters are skeptical of anything that anyone says. You can say that's because of, you know, the rise of AI or a partisan media or a fractured media system, whatever you might attribute that to.

8:24But there is this distrust in what is said just generally. And so I think that presidents, Biden felt this, Trump certainly feels this, are feeling that they aren't getting the credit they deserve because most Americans just don't trust what they're saying. And that's why I think you're seeing Trump in particular come out and say, look at all that I've done. Why am I not getting credit for this? But he's also up there calling, you know, Somalia not a real country and disparaging Somali Americans in Minnesota and accusing them of voter fraud because they vote as a bloc. It's a rigged state. And the Somalians vote as one group, even if they're not citizens.

9:03And they vote as one group. And, you know, you get 600 ,000 votes against you. They all ought to get the hell out of here. They're bad for our country. So he was not just up there touting his accomplishments. He was also doing what Trump does, which is kind of go off on tangents and in some sense insult people or entire groups of people. He is a polarizing president. And so whereas half of America will be like, this is great, this stuff that you are doing, there's another half that will be like, this is absolutely horrible. And for Trump, it is him saying, I've accomplished all of these things.

9:39And he thinks of them as accomplishments and his followers do. Like what, Cleve? Like what is he saying that his accomplishments are that people should be giving him credit for? Oh, man, let's tick them off, right? I mean, I don't know. I mean, I mean, yeah, exactly. It's sitting on my desk. You know, D.C. Let's just start right here. He says that D.C. is a safer city because, you know, he brought the National Guard to D.C. and he took over the the police force. He touts how there's very, very few crossings at the southern border and that presidents for decades have had a difficult time getting a handle on immigration.

10:19And now there's there's there's none whatsoever. You know, he touts the economy. He even talked a little bit about, you know, tax refunds that are coming and how they're going to be, you know, a bigger and how they've kept inflation under control. The problem was that he kind of jumped from issue to issue, 365 of them, without transition. And so it's just like this and this and this and this and another thing. And before he even took a question, I just felt like there was this overload of all that Trump wants us to know that he's done. And we're going to move on, but his accomplishments are also largely exaggerated, particularly around whether or not he's kept D.C.

10:58safe, whether or not he's brought down or leveled inflation. You know, you can poke holes in a lot of the things. But I mean, there are also some areas that he has had like clear wins. I mean, people voted for him to tighten immigration policy. He has done that, whether it's popular or not is another question, but he has done that. He has done what he has said on the southern border about limiting the number of people to come over illegally. He has done that. There are plenty of holes to be poked in a lot of what he says about the economy, about other issues. But it is worth remembering that there are a large faction of Americans who voted for some portion of this.

11:32And that's why he kind of has the staying power that I think a lot of people are perplexed by. So let's move across the Atlantic because in the hours after you saw him at the White House, he left for Switzerland. He was there to meet with leaders from around the world at the World Economic Forum in Davos. And, you know, we know that the mood going into this event was tense because Trump had been escalating his threats about taking over Greenland, his threats about issuing new tariffs on Europe. But Dan, what really struck me is how world leaders, particularly the prime minister of Canada, you know, stood up to Trump and challenged America as a world leader, challenged our place in the world.

12:13Let's listen to a bit of what Prime Minister Mark Carney had to say. Now, Canada was amongst the first to hear the wake-up call, leading us to fundamentally shift our strategic posture. Canadians know that our old comfortable assumptions, that our geography and alliance memberships automatically conferred prosperity and security. That assumption is no longer valid. Dan, what do you make of that? I mean, it's an elbows-up moment for the Prime Minister of Canada, who I think it's correct. He probably was the first to kind of recognize what was changed in the United States far earlier than I think some of the European allies recognized around the president and his rhetoric.

12:52Because of the threats, because of the tariff threats? I think because of tariffs, I think because of proximity, I think because of the president swept into power saying he was going to make Canada a 51st state. I mean, there's a number of reasons that Canada kind of woke up to this earlier, but it really was a dramatic moment. And I think it's fair to say that, you know, this is probably one of the more dramatic breaks in the world order that has been established since World War II. And to be clear, Trump spoke after Carney spoke? Yes, he did. He spoke after Carney spoke. Because he addressed what Carney said as well, right?

13:20He absolutely did. And he criticized the prime minister and said that the only reason that Canada exists is because of the United States. Canada gets a lot of freebies from us, by the way. They should be grateful also, but they're not. I watched your prime minister yesterday. He wasn't so grateful. But they should be grateful to us. Canada lives because of the United States. Remember that, Mark, the next time you make your statements? Obviously, that is not true, but it is kind of Trump's way of bloviating his rhetoric, attacking our neighbor to the north. I think a real takeaway from just one day in Davos with the president was that there are real fractures between the United States and our longest time allies, Canada, France, the United Kingdom.

14:09You have seen the way that, you know, a lot of people in the United States, a lot of institutions, political power have not been able to find a way to stand up to the president in the way that our allies have in recent weeks because of Greenland. I mean, you've seen troops be moved to Greenland. You've seen negotiations around trade deals be ended because of what the president is doing in Greenland. You have seen really harsh rhetoric from world leaders because of the president's saber rattling around Greenland. So I think it's worth noting that while many Americans are wondering kind of where is the line for the president, like where does this stop?

14:47European leaders did stand up to him in a way that we haven't seen. And I think that's why you saw as he was leaving Davos, he announced that he had struck this deal to basically end his saber rattling around the Arctic island. But what's the deal? That's what I don't see. That's what I don't understand. The concepts of a deal. We've heard. We've heard concepts of a plan before. We've heard that before at the debate when he talked about concepts of a health care plan. Right. And this is concepts of a deal. And to Dan's point, I think a lot of what we've seen from Trump during his political career, but specifically over the last year is, you know, notching the win before the details are worked out.

15:24You know, he gets to walk away from Davos saying, I got what I wanted from these European leaders. America has won, you know, even though even a day later, we don't know exactly what that victory or that win looks like. I also think it's his speech was offensive to Europeans. Sure. I mean, he was belittling French President Emmanuel Macron. With an accent. Yeah, with an accent who had some sort of eye issue and was wearing aviators at the event. So when I called up Emmanuel Macron, I watched him yesterday with those beautiful sunglasses. What the hell happened? He obviously belittled Canada. He said that the United States has never asked for anything from NATO.

16:13But the problem with NATO is that we'll be there for them 100%. But I'm not sure that they'd be there for us if we gave them the call. Gentlemen, we are being attacked. We're under attack by such and such a nation. I know them all very well. I'm not sure that they'd be there. Which is just not true. The only time that Article 5, which is the agreement with NATO that basically means that if there's an attack on one country, all other countries will come and support that country. The only time that has been evoked is by the United States around the September 11th in response to the September 11th attacks.

16:53And then he criticized Denmark as, you know, this small country and really belittled them. You know, Danish soldiers served alongside Americans in Afghanistan and had one of the highest death rates in that war per capita. So there are, you know, Danish families who have lost loved ones fighting alongside Americans. And it is offensive to have the president of the United States then go to Europe and criticize their ability to protect themselves and to serve. You mentioned that you, you know, Trump gets to leave Switzerland declaring this win. But for European leaders, is it also a win for them?

17:30Because he backed down on tariffs. He's saying he's not going to take Greenland by force. Again, we don't know what he got in this deal in this framework. And we're talking Thursday morning. Maybe we'll have more details in the coming hours and days by the time people listen to this podcast or watch this podcast. But it seems that Europeans could also be calling this a win. Yeah, I think that everybody, every world leader gets to walk away and say that we got some kind of win. One of the really important things to remember about events like Davos or NATO summits or G7s or any of the Gs is that it's an international confab, but they are talking to a domestic audience.

18:10And so European leaders get to leave and they say, before we came here, you know, Trump was going to impose tariffs that were going to ruin and wreck our economy. And now those things aren't happening. We win, we win. And Trump gets to say, you know, we've notched to win. We all but have Greenland and all of that stuff. It is just always to a domestic audience and Trump trying to notch a win as early as possible. But like any good negotiation, everybody gets to leave with something. I do think something that the Canadian prime minister said really stuck out in a way that I haven't heard world leaders kind of rebut Trump.

18:45He talked about middle powers. You know, so much of the world is seen through superpowers. Right. Russia, China, the United States and what they want, what they need. Clearly, that's how Trump sees the world. He sees the world kind of as this binary competition between the United States, Russia and China. The Canadian prime minister in his speech spoke about middle powers uniting, coming together. So middle powers would be, you know, these nations that are powerful but aren't superpowers. Canada, the United Kingdom, France, other nations. But they have a lot to offer through their economies, right?

19:17Absolutely. Who we have trade deals with and we need things from. And so by him framing this as the United States is no longer a reliable partner, middle powers need to unite and become kind of a cohort of superpowers that can stand up to the president of the United States threatening to wreck our economies. I wonder if that carries on beyond Davos and you see a partnership between these nations that have powerful economies, but not on the size and scale of the United States. And if you see a more united front and standing up to the president, because someone like a Mark Carney, the prime minister of Canada, kind of led that push and took it right to Donald Trump in Davos.

19:56Yeah. I mean, Cleva, you mentioned that, you know, for these European leaders, they're there, but they're really talking to a domestic audience. They're talking to their own constituents. Is that true for Trump too? And how do people back here in America feel when he's overseas so focused on these international fights when, again, here in America, people still feel like things aren't working for them, particularly economically. Sure. It is. I think that Trump is talking to Americans, but he's talking to a particular subset of Americans, those that voted for him, those that are on his side, those that are part of the MAGA movement and all of that stuff.

20:35And those are the people that he's trying to persuade that this way, the 800-pound gorilla argument is the right way, that we are America, that we will take what we want, that we will do what's in our best interest, and that the other countries will fall in line. That is sort of what they're trying to convince people who were formerly or used to be are transitioning from America first, you know, that like it's in our best interest to assert, you know, our might across the hemisphere and across the world. But what we've seen from previous elections, both midterms and presidential elections, is that people tend to vote on domestic issues.

21:13They tend to vote on the economy, on pocketbook issues, on whether they feel like they have money, you know, money in there at the end of the week or money to go on vacation or whatever. And so it's too soon to see whether Trump's foreign policy focus, particularly in the first part of this year, will have like calamitous impacts for him or for his party, you know, a few months down the road. I think one question that we're watching very closely is not or, it's and. It's whether Trump is able to do this foreign policy stuff and to provide an economic benefit to people who really elected him to have that economic benefit.

21:53Yeah. Nothing says affordability like the Swiss Alps in the winter, right? Switzerland, that famous place where everything is cheap. Davos, where only the middle class. Yeah, it's amazing. Go on vacation. Yeah. So let's take a break there. And when we come back, we're going to talk a little bit more about the midterms. Be back in a sec.

22:23So we touched on this a little bit before the break, which is, you know, Trump's focus abroad on all these international fights. It's not necessarily what Republicans who are facing tough elections coming in November, what they would like him to be talking about or at least be focused on. And that might be one of the reasons, not the only reason, why Democrats are feeling pretty bullish about their chances in the midterms, particularly in the House. But why are Democrats feeling like the wind is at their backs? There's a number of reasons. history is on their side. Traditionally, when a president sweeps into power, the first midterms that they face are very difficult for the party in power.

22:59That was true for President Trump when he swept into office in 2016. The 2018 midterms were a huge blue wave for the Democratic Party, and they swept into control of the House. There are some hopes, there's some belief that the 2026 midterms could be similar to that. Democrats feel very good about the messaging environment that they're in as well. President Trump, as you note, did not run on a ton of international affairs issues. And that has been the main focus. Other than being the peace president. Sure. And that has been the main focus of his first year. He promised throughout the 2024 campaign that he would bring inflation down, that he would bring prices down, that he would get a handle on the economy.

23:41And poll after poll after poll have shown that voters just don't think he's done that. Things remain unaffordable according to these polls. And the most damaging thing for the president that you've seen is that the electorate that backed him in 2024 and made him president has largely fallen apart. Latino voters, he did very well with Latino voters in 2024. Young voters, he did better than I think any Republican president in about 30 years with young voters. That has largely fallen apart for him and young voters have swept back to Democrats or at least away from the president. That is why Democrats are very confident.

24:17And actually, I wanted to ask you a question because you have done a lot of reporting this week about the Senate map. I was talking mostly about the House. Yeah, that's right. But there are Democrats who actually think that the Senate now may be more in play than they did maybe two or three months ago. Yeah. Why is that? And what will that mean for the hopes that they actually have to take the Senate? I like being on this side. I know. Yeah, it's true. So I worked with our colleague Theo Meyer on this Senate map story where we looked at the map and suddenly Democrats were a couple of months ago.