Special Envoy to Greenland Gov. Jeff Landry 1/6/26

0:00Bring in show music please. Hi, I'm CNBC producer Katie Kramer. Today on Squawk Pod. The politics, power, and of course, the oil at play in Venezuela with investor Daniel Osorio. It's high viscosity. It can be refined here. So there are U.S. companies, Asphalt, Diesel. There are U.S. oil companies and U.S. oil service companies that are going to make money on exploration, production, and refining. Does this mean Greenland is next? Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry is the new special envoy to Greenland, and he says it's just business. I think that the president supports an independent Greenland with economic ties and trade opportunities for the United States.

0:46Plus, the wealth tax spooking billionaires in the Golden State and causing political headaches for tech-friendly Democrats. What the hell does that mean? Driving billionaires out of the state might feel good in the short run. because those people don't like the billionaires. It's Tuesday, January 6th, 2026. Squawk Pod begins right now. Stand Becky by in three, two, one. Cue it, please. Good morning, everybody. Welcome to Squawk Box right here on CNBC. We are live from the NASDAQ market site in Times Square. I'm Becky Quick along with Joe Kernan and Andrew Ross Sorkin. Hail, hail, the gang's all here.

1:24And we are ready to go once again. Happy birthday. I thought we'd do this later, but happy birthday. We're not going to do anything, believe me. But life moves pretty fast. That's all. See there. That's all right there. You referenced it. That's the only reason you said it. Happy birthday. A great philosopher once said, life moves pretty fast, and you better stop and take a look around once in a while, or you could miss it. Yeah. You remember who that great philosopher was? No. Was it Yogi Berra? Nope. It was Ferris Bueller. Oh, yes. I do remember it now. But January 6th is a special day because of the epiphany.

1:57And I looked at what it meant, and I think maybe you'll appreciate this quickly, because when Jesus was born, he was born, he was the king of Israel. And at that point, that was the chosen people nobody else was invited in. I didn't realize the three kings were Gentiles. And that represents everybody can be part of this. I mean, this is what's written anyway, if you believe it. I don't know whether you believe it or not, but that's what Christians and Catholics believe, that that's when everybody was writing. Then they bought frankincense, which... Gold and myrrh. Gold was representing kingmanship.

2:31Frankincense was divinity, and myrrh was the future suffering that he was going to go through. Anyway, that's what I'd like to... And it's Norman Reedus' birthday, the guy from Walking Dead. So those are the two things I want to leave. That's worth celebrating. Those are what I want to leave you with. the Trump administration, and just that we're all getting older, and there's just no stopping it. It's almost like a freight train, is it not? I mean, some of us older than others, but the years are going by. Life does move pretty fast. Ferris Bueller was pretty smart. The years are going by.

3:04Our next guest here to weigh in on Venezuela leader Nicolas Maduro's ouster and the impact on oil, on crypto, as we were just discussing at the commercial break. And so much more doing us is Daniel Oserio. He is Andean Capital Advisor, President and Founder. Good morning to you. Good morning. So help us understand what you think is going to happen here next before we even get into all the other details. Well, I think to put it in context, this is the biggest thing that has happened in U.S. foreign policy to Latin America in 65 years, since the Bay of Pigs. You know, the Trump administration has clearly said the hemisphere matters.

3:38And it is of grave national importance to the United States, and we will act accordingly. And we saw that over the weekend. But what do you think ends up happening in Venezuela as a result of it? I don't know if you saw, by the way, the State Department put out, I think it was on Instagram or on Twitter, it says, this is our hemisphere. Did you see that? Yeah. And I wonder what that means in a more broader sort of perspective in terms of what do you think all these other countries are thinking now? Well, I mean, we haven't spoken about the Monroe Doctrine as much as we have in a long time. I believe it's the Donro.

4:07The Donro Doctrine, right. I'm still getting used to that. It's going to impact macroeconomic stability in the region. It's going to impact elections. I'm originally from Colombia. There's an election this spring. The election in Colombia has already been decided. The leftist leaning candidate is going to lose because of this. I mean, did we have to claim that we're the, that it's our hemisphere? It was de facto of the United States. It is because of its influence power, economic power, military power. It is the hemisphere where the U.S. is dominant. And China would admit that they are over there.

4:41You don't even have to say it for it to be true. You don't have to say it. Brazil's largest trading partner is China. China built the largest port in South America, in Peru. You have to say it. You have to show it. So you have to say it. So this is not a bad thing? You have to show it. It's interventionist, it kind of looks like. And it seems like a return to a different era. It's a return to a different era. Is it a good thing? I think it is a good thing. I think, but I think to stop this kind of mass migration, to stop flow of people and funds that are confusing, it's important to have - Well, talk about that.

5:14How much do you think, though, this is about immigration? How much do you think this is about oil? How much do you think this is actually about drugs? But Daniel Sayers from Colombia, I didn't realize, how many Venezuelans in Colombia? So Venezuela is a country of 28 million people. And how many - Eight million people, it should be 35, 36. Eight million people left Venezuela. It's the largest migration, I think, since the Second World War. And they've gone, there are five million of them in Colombia. They've gone all over Latin America. And these aren't, you know, they get painted with a bad brush.

5:46These are not bad people. These are people looking for new options. But they need health care. They need all. They need health care, new education. They arrive with no money throughout the hemisphere, largely in Colombia. Now, you can imagine what that does to a developing economy when five million people show up saying, I need shelter, I need health, I need education. So what do you think the prevailing view is in Latin America about what's happening here? You think they're happy about this? They're unhappy about this? I can frame it to you this way. There's a sovereignty issue. Right, I can frame it to you this way.

6:16Every Venezuelan, with the exception of a few thousand people that used to run that regime, are ecstatic. So whenever there's a debate of, should we have done this, should we have done that, the Venezuelans are ecstatic because they're going to get their country back. I think the question is, what comes next? Well, I think there's going to be some power sharing. What do I mean by that? There is obviously Delce Rodriguez, the vice president, who's now been promoted to the top spot. She's part of the old Maduro regime. It's undoubtedly, as are the leaders in there. I think the Trump administration is going to have them run potholes and traffic tickets.

6:53And the Trump administration runs security and oil. And when you say that, when you say that we're going to run all those things, does that mean boots on the ground? I think it's... How else can we run this? Boots or technocrats? I think technocrats can't be there without boots. Okay. Right? And I think it's not one of those jobs you can work from home. So you believe we're going to have boots on the ground in Venezuela? I think the U.S. Embassy is going to reopen. It's going to be a massive effort. There's going to be technocrats there. There's a difference between opening a U.S. Embassy and there's a difference between having thousands of troops on the ground.

7:24Are you saying thousands of troops or opening an embassy? I think it's impossible to reopen a massive embassy without having thousands of troops protecting said embassy. This is where this is going. Okay. So now it gets interesting. If you're right, then there's the oil piece. So the president has been out publicly. The White House said it today in The Wall Street Journal that they believe that U.S. oil companies are ready to go in there and invest big. And yet on the other end, it's not clear that the U.S. oil companies are willing or want to do that right now, given the price of oil and everything else.

7:55So where do you see that piece of this? I mean, U.S. oil service companies were up 7, 8 percent yesterday. The Venezuelan defaulted bonds were up 30 percent yesterday. I don't care. Both defaulted bonds, even defaulted bonds, don't move 30 percent in a trading session. But it may not be the big majors. It may be other investors that step in and do that. I mean, Schlumberger, Halliburton, those were on the move yesterday. Is this oil patch big enough to move Exxon? It moved it a little bit. We had a former Chevron executive who was with us yesterday who was raising his own fund who is thinking he's going to have a lot of money coming in and that it may not be the majors who do it first and maybe others that kind of bring that money in.

8:32Before Chavez arrived, Maduro's mentor, 98, 99, Venezuela produced 3.5 million barrels of oil a day. They now produce 900 ,000 barrels a day. And they produce 900 ,000 barrels a day doing everything wrong. Corruption, brain drain, lack of technological innovation. And they've allowed the infrastructure to collapse. There's some of it that needs a good coat of paint. There's some of it that needs a lot of money. So there's a bit of everything. The thing about Venezuela, you can still pull the stuff out of the ground for 13 bucks a barrel. That's unbelievable. They have 300 billion barrels of proven oil reserves.

9:08And their oil reserves are the heavy crude, the sour crude, that there are a lot of refineries in the United States, especially along the Gulf, that they refine that, not the stuff that's coming out of the Bakken. Exactly. It's high viscosity. It can be refined here. So there are U.S. companies, asphalt, diesel. There are U.S. oil companies and U.S. oil service companies that are going to make money on exploration, production, and refining. We need a SWAC fund. We should, at$13 a bill. You sat down and talked about Bitcoin is not popular in Venezuela because of an investment. It's a usage case.

9:44It's absolutely essential if you want to buy something. to make that case? One of the fascinating things that has happened in Venezuela, not out of intellectual curiosity or out of portfolio diversification, but out of necessity, is how so many people within that country have used crypto for survival. They use certain cryptos to buy a sandwich. They use Bitcoin to save. Because imagine if you have a currency that literally dissolves out of your hands. After you work for a week, it's gone. You work for a week and it's gone. You have huge inflation. You have massive currency devaluation. You have to get it into something else.

10:20And there are no dollars. It's very easy to say, well, why don't you just buy dollars? There are no dollars there. Right? So crypto has been the answer. So a slight pivot away from just the oil interest and geopolitical interest is what can we learn as we're learning more about crypto adoption with what has happened as Venezuela is a base case? And it's fascinating. There's a ton of information. But let me ask you a different question. if you believe the U.S. is coming in and is going to clean up Venezuela, you would argue that Bitcoin, the use case of Bitcoin should actually be less, not more, right?

10:54I think once people have gone through the 25 years these folks have gone through, it's going to take a long time to convince them things are fine. But why is that view? That view is completely at odds with the other view you just provided around oil and everything else that has to happen. You just said that the whole country is that there's a big investment case to be made in the country. Everything, you know, we can go in and do all these things. And Bitcoin is the opposite view. Bitcoin is the view that for 25 years, people are so psychologically scarred by this that they can't do anything and they'll never trust real money.

11:27No, it just takes time. Right. You can't be, you know, so myopic to think that this is going to get fixed in a week, two weeks, three weeks. It's going to take some time. In the meantime, people are going to protect their assets by maintaining their. Right. So there's a short term bet on that. That would be a short term bet. I'm saying is the assuming if you believe the U.S. is so great at taking things over and doing all these things, you would think that Bitcoin shouldn't shouldn't have the value that it has. By the way, I'm not making the case one way or the other. I'm just. You seem to quite a bit.

11:56Well, here we are making. He's arguing. I don't get that. I don't get that. But, yeah, but... I think there's going to be a ton of money flowing in. I think there's going to be the equivalent of a Marshall Plan for Venezuela that's going to be paid for, not by us, but through Venezuelan oil. U.S. companies are going to come in. They're going to increase exploration. They're going to invest in oil infrastructure. They're going to invest in infrastructure. And that's going to get that country going. And do you think that we are going to be either reimbursing folks or financially incentivizing companies to do this?

12:27Meaning that, do you think this ultimately is going to have to come from... You're saying it doesn't come from the U.S. taxpayer. But if you talk to some of these oil execs and others, there's a view that like maybe we wait around and people do stuff for us. I think there is going to be an increased activity in the international debt capital markets once the Venezuelan bonds and the Pedevesa bonds, the oil company bonds, gets restructured. The Venezuelan will have access to the debt capital markets. They'll borrow money. They'll get that country moving again. oil companies will come in and make their own investment and then they're gonna get a revenue share of what they I think a pretty favorable revenue fair share of the oil that comes out of the grain of Venezuela.

13:05It's not gonna be a dollar denominated economy down there but more so than it was in the past I guess right? I think currency will improve the Venezuela we're seeing it with the bonds already. There'll be a reset the bonds are denominated in dollars they'll be a reset the question will be does it just become if I was a central bank governor of Venezuela, it might just be easier to dollarize the economy. That's what I mean. And just say, hey, you know what? We're a dollar economy, and this is the way this thing works now. But I don't think that that means no one has Bitcoin. That's the point. I don't think it means that all of a sudden everyone just...

13:39I'm not saying everybody sells all their Bitcoin. I'm saying, but if you dollarize the economy and you think the dollar is so great, you think less people would... I think it's already... It's out of the horse left the barn already. Yeah, I think it would be a combination. I think people would welcome the chance to have earning dollars and also be able to save in other... I just don't think the unbanked... People talked about Bitcoin a lot about around the world, the unbanked, that work all week and then have nothing to show for it. And this is, I think, a concrete example that it's actually happened.

14:10You've seen it happen. And until people have gone through hyperinflation, you don't know what that feels like. Exactly what you just said. You work all week and then all of a sudden the money's gone. We did have the Biden administration. I don't think there was hyperinflation during the Biden administration. 9 % is pretty hyper. Got people pretty hyped. They're still hyped up about it. The affordability question, that's from the 22 % in that administration. That's where it's from, right? Daniel, thank you for coming. Thank you. It's great to see all of you. Cheese will be next. Coming up on Squawk Pod, what happens when the Democratic mayor of Silicon Valley's largest city comes out against a so-called billionaire's tax in California?

14:51The Golden State and fractured tech politics. Next. Why don't they like the billionaire? Because they think that the world is unequal, which it is.

15:07You're listening to Squawk Pod. Stand, Andrew, bye. In three, two, one, cue, Andrew. Welcome back to Squawk Box, the Democratic mayor of Silicon Valley's largest city speaking out against a proposed tax on billionaires' net worth. San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan writing on X. We need a rising economic tide to lift all boats, not a political plan that is going to sink California's innovation economy. New York Times has reported that investor Peter Thiel and Google's co-founder Larry Page have considered leaving California. Mahan said that driving billionaires out of the state might feel good in the short run, but working people will pick up the tab for this political ploy.

15:45It's interesting because Peter Thiel already opened an office, I don't know if you saw, in Miami. Put out a release. Put out a release about it. a press release about it. You do that in part because you might be saying you've already moved, if you will. And then there's, you know, I don't know if you saw Ro Khanna. I know you're doing this, you know, Rojo campaign together. But by the way, he said, good riddance. I know. He took to Twitter and said, good riddance. I was thinking about this. All politics are local, and I understand this gentleman even as a Democrat. But I don't, he can't help himself, though what the hell does that mean driving billionaires out of the state might feel good in the short run that's a stupid comment he's saying that's feeding the populace to the same to the people who are the people who want that right that's why would it feel good in the short term because those people don't like the billionaires why don't they like the billionaire because they think that the world is unequal which it is but then you're going to have the issue where a rare number of people pay the majority like 30 percent of the tax base and if that disappears They can't get to the point of where they see how some— They clearly can't.

16:51That's why they're saying— Did all these people inherit the money? Why can't they? Why can't they see that when you do something like that and create that wealth, that there's taxes involved, there's shareholders involved, there's technology that's involved. You and I agree on this topic. You sure? Yes. Billionaires are a good thing. I am not disagreeing with that. And Roe knows that. I'm not disagreeing with that. Roe can't help himself because the geographic center of that crazy Democratic Party at this point is so far left that he can't be. If you're John Fetterman in this Democratic Party, you almost have to become an independent.

17:26You can't say normal, reasonable things anymore, Andrew. It's going to change. We're seeing it change, I think, at this point. Well, I don't know. You might be seeing it change the other way. That's the other piece of this. You say maybe every generation we have to go through that. I think there's a lot of folks who look around. This goes back to the question about affordability. And they say, you know, and they look at the billionaires. Remember in G1, every once in a while, there's got to be like a total battle. And, you know, the mattresses come out. A lot of people, bad things happen. Then you can start fresh again.

17:58But we've got to learn. Well, but then there could be a real battle. I mean, that's this good. Now you're into the Ray Dalio Civil War kind of situation. No, I was just kidding about the godfather. But one of the things that he's talked about for a long time is that when you get this kind of inequality, you do have to believe the inequality piece is not good. That is true. Forgetting about whether you like billionaires, you don't like billionaires, you want everyone to become a billionaire. We do. But Ray Dalio also said no one can do what he did anymore. Like, he's so special. There's still a possibility of it.

18:28It's much harder to do. I think that we need to equalize opportunity, not equalize outcome. But the opportunity for that outcome today is lower than it was before. For a lot of reasons. Globalization and AI is going to make it even tougher. Sure. And so then the question is, this is a political question, how do you fix that? We have a politician waiting on the other side of this. Well, I wouldn't look for government to fix it. Next on Squawk Pod, CNBC's Emily Wilkins on Congress's busy return to Washington. And from Venezuela to Greenland, we're diving into President Trump's new interpretation of the centuries-old Monroe Doctrine with Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry.

19:10I think that when he looks at Greenland, he says, look, we've got a defense, a national security interest in Greenland. We have a defense treaty that's been in place since 1941. We've got soldiers in Greenland. We can do more. We can offer Greenland more than Europe is. We'll be right back.

19:34This is Squawk Pod. You're watching Squawk Box right here on CNBC. I'm Andrew Osorkin, along with Joe Kernan and Becky Quick. And the big news of the morning is it is Joe Kernan's birthday. No, no, we were going to do that once when no one was watching. And Joe, we were going to wish him a very happy birthday. We did that at six to get it out of the way. Joe Kernan, the birthday boy. We'll get you a hat. We'll get streamers in a moment. I won't continue the... And wait. I thought we got today's other top stories. President Trump says he thinks U.S. oil companies could get major operations up and running in Venezuela in under 18 months.

20:09And they would be reimbursed for their expenses, either by the U.S. government or with new Venezuelan revenue. Unclear whether that's a possibility, given some of the comments we've been hearing from oil executives about that prospect. The Trump administration briefing top congressional lawmakers about the U.S. operation in Venezuela. Emily Wilkins joins us now with more live from Washington. You can, if you see Eric Trump down there, it's his birthday too, Emily, just in case you're wondering. Well, happy birthday, Joe. I guess happy epiphany as well. You know, to celebrate, top lawmakers had a two-hour briefing last night with a number of cabinet officials.

20:48This is, of course, on Venezuela. And they left with Republicans feeling very confident on the path forward here. You had Speaker Mike Johnson, who said after leaving the briefing that he does not anticipate American boots on the ground in Venezuela and he does expect elections to be held. This is not a regime change. This is a demand for change of behavior by a regime. The interim government is stood up now and we are hopeful that they will be able to to correct their action. They cannot participate with narco-terrorists and very dangerous international criminal organizations that harm and target Americans, frankly, and traffic all of these dangerous drugs into our country.

21:29They do all this great harm to our country. They cannot continue that activity. Democratic leaders did remain skeptical after the meeting. You had Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer saying the meeting left him with only more questions. Their plan for the U.S. running Venezuela is vague, based on wishful thinking and unsatisfying. I asked for, I would have liked to, I did not receive any assurances that we would not try to do the same thing in other countries. Senator Tim Kaine will be forcing a vote in the Senate later this week on blocking further U.S. military action in Venezuela. A few other Republican lawmakers have spoken out against Trump's moves in Venezuela, but so far the majority of Trump's party seems to be on board.

22:18They are waiting to be briefed later this week. Trump is going to be speaking with House Republicans at 10 a.m. today, and then there will be full briefings for the House and the Senate. It looks like that might be on Wednesday. Joe? Yes, a lot going on here. I'm thinking Greenland, we're going to have Governor Landry on later today. What should I ask him, Emily? Definitely. I think there's a lot of interest. I mean, I know people have put forward Greenland. I'm thinking to Congressman Don Bacon, who has kind of been somewhat supportive of what's happened in Venezuela, but said, look, I don't see any upside to going to Greenland.

22:54Denmark is an ally of ours. It doesn't seem to make sense. NATO. So it would be very interesting to see them compare the two of those. Yeah, it's NATO, too. I mean, it's complicated. But, yeah, people have put it forward. I think Stephen Miller tweeted something out, a picture of Greenland with saying U.S. over it and said soon or something. So there's a big piece in the journal today on what constitutes international law and whether, you know, suddenly everyone's throwing around the term international law and whether it applies to Venezuela. The journal makes a case that international law doesn't necessarily preclude something like the accident of Venezuela.