Return to Transcripts main page
Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees
Trump To Head To Davos Amid Greenland Push, Tariff Threats; Trump Set To Face a Diplomatic Intervention On Greenland In Davos; Interview With Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA); Sources: DOJ Subpoenas Minnesota Govt. Offices; NY Times Editorial Board Analyzes How Trump Has Made $1.4 Billion Off The Presidency In One Year; North Korea's State-Run Film Industry Takes A Cue From Hollywood. Aired 8-9p ET
Aired January 20, 2026 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And I think, you know, we're only three weeks in, but we are not seeing the sort of aggressive, very scaled up action that Trump threatened before Mamdani was elected, right?
He said he would send in the National Guard. He said he would have to take over. That hasn't happened. So, I think for now we can say it's working. But of course, there's a very long road ahead.
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: Right, right, and we see how things quickly can happen.
PAZMINO: Yes.
BURNETT: Gloria, thank you so much. And thanks so much to all of you for watching. "AC360" starts now.
[20:00:28]
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: Tonight on 360, the President is asked how far he'll go to get Greenland. His answer as he heads off to a hostile reception in Europe, you'll find out.
Also, tonight, it is not just an immigration crackdown, as federal prosecutors subpoena at least five Minnesota officials, including Governor Tim Walz and the Mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Frey.
And later, a year since he was inaugurated, just how much has Donald Trump and his family raked in? According to "The New York Times," they made at least $1.4 billion, and the money grab is just getting started.
Good evening, thanks for joining us.
Just minutes from now, the President will leave for Europe. He's headed to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, which has been transformed this year into a kind of emergency summit, a venue for European allies to confront or appease, we don't yet know his push to acquire Greenland and the potential it has to fracture the almost 77-year-old NATO alliance and reshape the world order.
So far, though, the talk has confrontational.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARK CARNEY, CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER: Let me be direct, we are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: That's Mark Carney, the Prime Minister of Canada formerly one of this country's closest allies. His remarks today in Davos came not long after the President posted this online overnight. It's an A.I. generated image of NATO leaders gathered in the Oval Office with a map behind him showing Canada and Greenland as American territories.
Now, he also posted this, showing him planting an A.I. flag on an A.I. Greenland with an A.I. sign which reads Greenland U.S. territory established 2026. He also made public this private message from French President Emmanuel Macron ahead of the Davos trip. In it, the French President writes, "I do not understand what you're doing in Greenland." He then offers to set up an emergency meeting of the G7 countries after Davos with Ukrainian, Danish, Syrian and Russian representatives there for the President to meet with.
And he finishes with this, "Let us have a dinner together in Paris together on Thursday before you go back to the U.S. -- Emmanuel".
Now, the President answered that invitation today with a snub.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: No, I wouldn't do that because, you know, Emmanuel is not going to be there very long and, you know, there's no longevity there. He's a friend of mine. He's a nice guy. I like Macron, but he's not going to be there very much longer as you know and I think --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Well, in fact, President Macron's second term in office does not end until May of 2027. He also spoke today in Davos in English, not in French. The sunglasses are for a recent eye condition.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
EMMANUEL MACRON, PRESIDENT OF FRANCE: We do believe that we need more growth. We need more stability in this world but we do prefer respect to bullies and we do prefer rule of law to brutality.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Now, without mentioning the President by name, Macron warned of a world in which International Law is "trampled underfoot, and the only rule that seems to matter is the rule of the strongest."
Now, others were more direct. Here's a Danish member of the European Parliament today. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERS VISTISEN, DANISH MEMBER OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: Let me in words you might understand, Mr. President fuck off.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Well, he got scolded for that language. However, the last time he said something similar, back in January of last year, he used a different verb, telling CNN he wanted to convey just how unacceptable he found the President's desire for Greenland to be. A year later, that desire has not faded.
It was front and center today, as the President marked a year in office by taking off a long list of his accomplishments catalogued in a book he carried into the briefing room.
He spoke for an hour and 20 minutes before even taking his first question, and he didn't bring up Greenland until asked about it. He did, however, bring up not getting the Nobel Peace Prize, which just last night if you're keeping track, he professed not to care about, even though he just complained about it to Norway's Prime Minister over the weekend. Here's what he said when asked last night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPORTER: Can you speak to your letter that you wrote to the Prime Minister, saying that the Nobel Prize had influenced your thinking on Greenland?
TRUMP: No, I don't care about the Nobel Prize.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: He doesn't care about the Nobel Prize, though the day before, he certainly did. And today seems like he's back to caring and talking about it a lot.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: ... ended eight un-endable wars in ten months. These were un- endable wars. Should have gotten the Nobel Prize for each war but I don't say that. I save millions and millions of people. And don't let anyone tell you that Norway doesn't control the shots, okay. It's in Norway. Norway controls the shots, so we have nothing to do with it. It's a joke they've lost such prestige.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[20:05:15]
COOPER: It wasn't his last mention of the country or the price by the way.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPORTER: You told Norway's Prime Minister that --
TRUMP: Are you from Norway?
REPORTER: No.
TRUMP: You look like you would be. She looks like she's from Norway.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Well, the President was also asked several times how far he'd go to make Greenland America. He avoided a direct question about using force and said this when another reporter followed several questions later.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPORTER: How far are you willing to go to acquire Greenland?
TRUMP: You'll find out.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: As for what that might be, the President appeared to hint at it when asked whether breaking up NATO was a price worth paying for the territory.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: So, I think something is going to happen that's going to be very good for everybody. Nobody has done more for NATO.
I think that we will work something out when NATO is going to be very happy and we're going to be very happy. But we need it for security purposes, we need it for national security and even world security, it's very important.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: The President was also asked point blank whether he's committed to keeping the United States in NATO. He did not say yes. And in his remarks before the Q&A, he said something which cannot be reassuring to our NATO allies.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: The big fear I have with NATO is we spend tremendous amounts of money with NATO, and I know we'll come to their rescue, but I just really do question whether or not they'll come to ours, you know, I'm just asking, just saying, right? Do you remember during the debate, just saying.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Well, it's worth noting the only time that NATO's provision for collective defense has ever been invoked was when our allies rushed to our defense, then fought and died alongside American troops after 9/11.
Starting us off tonight is CNN senior White House correspondent, Kristen Holmes. Is it clear exactly what the President's expectations are for Davos?
KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: No, it's not and remember, he is going to give remarks to the World Economic Forum tomorrow and if they sound anything like what we saw today in the briefing room, it's going to be a lot of airing of grievances. He is supposed to meet with a number of world leaders. He said that he hasn't given any specifics, neither has his team. But he did say that there's going to be a lot of talk about Greenland while he's there.
He's also going to meet with CEOs, which is what he did last time he was in Davos as well. But there are a lot of questions about our foreign relations as he goes into this trip. It is increasingly clear that the relationship with our European allies, with our NATO allies is growing more and more tense by the minute and it doesn't appear as though President Trump is going to do anything at this time to try and alleviate some of the fear that were seeing from those European officials and from those European allies.
I will say Macron, the French President, had asked Donald Trump, as you noted in that text message, to have lunch with him, to come to an emergency session of the G7 in Paris. Afterwards, we are told he is not going to do that.
COOPER: Kristen Holmes, thanks very much.
Perspective now from CNN global affairs analyst Brett McGurk, who previously served as Middle East and North Africa coordinator for the National Security Council, and CNN chief political analyst David Axelrod, former senior adviser to President Obama.
David, did you ever imagine the United States alliance with its major European allies and all that it means for America's economy, reputation in the world would deteriorate to this point, even by the norm breaking standards of the Trump era.
DAVID AXELROD, CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: No, I don't think anybody would say that they could have imagined this moment. Certainly, not long ago.
But we should understand that President Trump has a worldview, and that worldview is that rules and laws and norms and institutions are for suckers and that the way the world works is the strong should take what they want and the weak fall away.
You heard Stephen Miller articulate that a few days ago. That's what he truly believes and that's what he's -- that's the instinct he's acting on. But the damage that he's doing to a structure that has really helped secure the world in a way that avoided the kinds of conflicts we saw before it is really stunning. And you're right, the economic implications of it are tremendous.
One of the reasons why, I suppose, the stock market took a dive today, but it's deeply -- that whole press conference, Anderson, was deeply disturbing because, the President seemed unmoored and insensitive to what we -- to the impact of his words and his actions.
COOPER: And by the way, we're showing images from the bustling metropolis of Nuuk, Greenland.
Brett, do you think the public fully grasps how serious this is? I mean, when the Prime Minister of Canada stands up publicly and says the world order is in the middle of a rupture, or European Allies signaling they can't rely on the U.S. because the new White House policy is essentially Greenland or else. Where does this go? Is there some sort of calming or off ramp?
[20:10:19]
BRETT MCGURK, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: I don't know, Anderson. You know, David just cited Thucydides, some Greek history, the strong do what they can, the weak suffer what they must. That's a lesson from the Peloponnesian War. But the lesson there actually is that Athens used that philosophy to seize an island and what happened by just ruling by brute force? They lost all their allies, ultimately lost their empire and lost the war. That's the parable.
And when you see Mark Carney, the Prime Minister of Canada saying in the World Order, there's a rupture. He was in China last week saying, we have a New-World order. These are all red flags.
At the same time, Anderson, I was at the NATO Summit with President Trump in 2017-2018 -- questions whether he'd stay in NATO, adhere to Article V, he did. NATO actually strengthened across two administrations.
So, let's see. Right now, I hate seeing this. I've worked with our NATO allies, the Danes in particular, one of our strongest, most reliable allies. So, it is deeply troubling. But let's see how it plays out. Hopefully there is an off ramp.
COOPER: David, it's interesting. I mean, there's obviously -- there are strategic reasons why the President might want a bigger, you know, military footprint in Greenland. You know, more -- you know, say in Greenland. But there's agreements that allows the U.S. right now to build as many military bases as it wants.
AXELROD: Absolutely, and he could take advantage of that. And it makes you wonder whether this is just another version of the Nobel Prize. He wants the acquisition, he wants to be able to say that he added Greenland to the United States. He thinks that somehow will make him great.
I don't think this is about -- oftentimes, when Donald Trump -- I don't think Venezuela was about drug interdiction, I don't think this is about defense because all of our needs could be met in a way that's much more in concert with our allies.
So, I think this is about acquisition, Anderson and this is about ego. COOPER: Brett, it's also kind of doublespeak. I mean, if the whole
idea is NATO can't defend Greenland, and NATO is not strong enough that we need to take over completely, Greenland, the whole way to --
I mean, weakening NATO just is not strengthening NATO. I mean, if his concern is a weak NATO, he is weakening NATO by this very action, by this deliberate -- this public, you know, gamesmanship or whatever it may be.
MCGURK: President Trump seems very good at identifying the problem. And then the prescriptions are completely out-of-whack.
Look, Greenland is hugely strategic. The Arctic from the melting of the polar ice caps is very strategic territory. The Russians have been investing massively. They have 50 of these icebreaker ships, some of them nuclear powered. The United States, by contrast, has three.
So yes, we are way behind and that's what makes this territory hugely strategic militarily, economically. But the answer is, as you said, Anderson, its NATO territory. It's part of our alliance.
We can have as many bases there as we want under a treaty we have with Denmark from 1951.
So, the whole rationale makes no sense and then it suggests this is more kind of a manifest destiny, you know, back to the 19th century, Abraham Lincoln's Secretary of State, William Seward, actually wanted to purchase Greenland, actually, after he purchased Alaska. But those days have passed. We now have alliances, webs of relationships that help advance our interests and keep us strong and we have that in Greenland.
COOPER: And just very briefly, Brett, I mean, every war zone I've been in where there's like a peacekeeping mission isn't Denmark like first to be on the ground there aligned with the U.S.?
MCGURK: You know, back in 2014, the worst days of the ISIS Caliphate in Iraq. And we wanted to put some troops in Anbar Province, the heart of it and the first call was to Copenhagen, and the Danes went there. They were the first country to go there. And I went out there to see them at the time.
Yes, they are the first call when you're in a real pickle. They're a great, great ally. They meet their NATO commitments. So, I think if Trump can meet their leaders, they might be able to work something out because we have an alliance.
COOPER: Yes, Brett McGurk, thank you; David Axelrod as well. Coming up next, we'll talk with the Democratic member of the House Armed Services Committee, and see what he makes of all of this.
And later, the new kind of propaganda that North Korea is now producing, taking a cue from Hollywood, making movies with graphic violence and nudity. We'll explain ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [20:19:28]
COOPER: The President leaves for Europe tonight with a collection of mixed messages, tariff threats and diplomatic snubs and provocations for the NATO allies to digest.
Now, some of it on Greenland, some on how he views the alliance itself. Here's how Belgium's Prime Minister put it today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BART DE WEVER, BELGIUM PRIME MINISTER: Until now, we tried to appease the new President in the White House, but now so many red lines are being crossed that you have the choice between your self-respect, being a happy vessel is one thing, being a miserable slave is something else.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[20:20:04]
COOPER: Well, for perspective, we are joined now by Massachusetts Democratic Congressman Seth Moulton. He is a Marine Corps vet and serves on the House Armed Services Committee.
Congressman, when you look at the friction between the U.S., European allies right now over Greenland on the eve of Trump's meeting with many of these leaders in Davos, where do you think this is headed?
REP. SETH MOULTON (D-MA): Well, you kind of have to assume the worst and I think that's what we've learned about Donald Trump is when he says he will do something bad, he usually does something worse. So, we actually have to take this completely absurd threat seriously, and that's why our European allies are taking it seriously as well.
COOPER: President Trump said that NATO is "going to be very happy" with what he works out on Greenland without obviously providing specifics. Is there any scenario in which you can see NATO allies being happy about this?
MOULTON: Not that I can see. But of course, Trump said this about his tariffs, right? Liberation Day, everyone is going to be happy and then, of course, he chickened out and started withdrawing the tariffs, when it was pretty apparent that prices were going up for everyone. If the Europeans carry through on their threats, prices are going to go up for Americans as well.
He said the One Beautiful Bill -- Big Bill would be whatever it was, would be really good for American families and it turns out that millions of Americans, millions of American kids are going to be without health care.
So, Trump always says things are going to be great for people that he doesn't really care about. Apparently, he does not care about the 18- year-old American troops who might find themselves landing on a beach in Greenland and getting shot by our NATO allies. QUEST: A snow-covered beach probably depending on where exactly in the
country it is, I mean, do you think this really is about the, you know, strategic importance of Greenland vis-a-vis Russia or China in a grab for Arctic dominance? Or is it about something else for this President? Because, again, as we talked about with our other guests, the U.S. military could right now under the 1951 Treaty with Denmark, could increase the footprint of U.S. troops? They could build more bases if they wanted to, as they had during the Cold War.
MOULTON: We could do everything we want to do on Greenland with not having to pay for their health care. So, I have no idea why the President would want to do this. It does not make strategic sense. It does not make sense in terms of our own people, putting America first as the President always claims that he is doing.
And so you have to increasingly wonder, just, you know, is President Trump just -- he has always been crazy, but is he really getting senile here? Because what this reminds me of is, you know, we all have an older relative that at some point just goes off the rails, starts believing in the most absurd conspiracy theories, starts becoming very radical.
And I mean, even for Trump, that is what we are seeing happening right now and I kind of wonder if that is what we are seeing in this President.
COOPER: Do you think some of this is sort of the ripple effects of the Venezuela operation that he feels emboldened and feels like that went well, even though the former regime is really still in power, all of the people who even the people who were indicted are still there in the offices they held. Do you think this is kind of the next step after Venezuela?
MOULTON: I think there is a piece of it that seems to, you know, carry on from that. He had a great success. He got very lucky. There were seven American brave servicemen wounded, two very seriously, but no one was killed and so everyone views the operation irrespective of the legality as a success, at least a lot of people do.
And so in Trump world, he sees the opportunity to go on to something next. But to be honest, Anderson, what I really think is driving this and people tell me not to say this because it sounds political, but what I really think is driving this is Jeffrey Epstein, because that's the one thing we haven't been talking about for the last several weeks and it is the one thing that has really hurt Trump's presidency. It is the only thing that has actually affected his popularity with his base.
We are right in the middle of when his Justice Department is supposed to be releasing tens of thousands of Epstein documents. Of course, they're not doing that because they're not following the law, his own Justice Department is not following the law.
But the fact that no one is talking about this right now is the biggest single benefit that Trump is getting out of these escapades, and I think that we can't forget that that's a reality, a political reality for his administration.
COOPER: All right, Congressman Seth Moulton, thanks very much for your time.
Up next, Minnesota's governor and the mayor of Minneapolis among those receiving subpoenas as the Department of Justice investigates possible obstruction of federal immigration enforcement, one Minnesota official whose county got a subpoena will join us.
And a new report tonight on just how much money President Trump and his family have raked in so far just this year since he began his second term.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:29:42]
COOPER: The Department of Justice has issued subpoenas in Minnesota, including to the office of Democratic Governor Tim Walz and the office of Democratic Mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Frey. It is part of the federal government's investigation into whether state and local officials have obstructed immigration enforcement efforts.
Waltz and Frey has been highly critical of the actions of federal immigration officers and this afternoon, President Trump doubled down on his claim that many immigrants are committing a lot of crime in Minnesota.
[20:30:10]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I can show you some of the people, vicious, many of them murderers. These are all out of Minnesota, just Minnesota. Why wouldn't you want them removed? The reason is because these are insurrectionists that are doing this work. And, you know, they're going to make mistakes sometimes. ICE is going to be too rough with somebody or, you know, they're dealing with rough people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Well, today Greg Bovino, a top Border Patrol official in Minneapolis, defended the actions of immigration officers called out Walz and Frey directly.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GREG BOVINO, BORDER PATROL COMMANDER AT LARGE: Leaders like Tim Walz or Mayor Frey have relied on heated rhetoric and accusations that distract from the facts. And what we do is legal, ethical, and moral. Everything we do every day is legal, ethical, moral, well grounded in law.
(END VIDEO CLIP) COOPER: I want to discuss the developments with Mary Moriarty, the Hennepin County Attorney that county was subpoenaed by the Department of Justice. Ms. Moriarty, you hear what, first of all, what Greg Bovino has just said. Is it ethical, legal, and moral, what you have been seeing on the streets of Minneapolis and throughout Minnesota?
MARY MORIARTY, HENNEPIN COUNTY ATTORNEY: Absolutely not. In fact, our law enforcement partners, local law enforcement, had a press conference today and one of the police chiefs was talking about one of his own police officers who was off-duty. She's an officer of color. She's a citizen. She was stopped by ICE. She was actually boxed in.
They were demanding to see her paperwork. She was trying to film them and they yanked the phone out of her hand. So I don't know what's ethical, lawful about that. You've also seen video of probably a Hmong elderly man who was led out of his house in his boxer shorts and Crocs. It is right now about 10 degrees in Minneapolis.
You've seen countless videos of people being dragged out of cars. And in fact, one of the things I think people really need to know is I don't know of a single parent who has not had to have a conversation with their children who are afraid that they are going to be taken by ICE or their parents are going to be taken by ICE or a friend is going to be taken by ICE. And we're talking about kids who are five years old.
People here are simply -- yes?
COOPER: Kristi Noem, the head of the Department of Homeland Security, has said in the past that ICE doesn't just go up to people and demand to see identification and proof of citizenship. That only happens if there's a criminal in the area, there's an operation against a criminal in the area, and someone happens to be in that area. And sure, they're going to want to see, you know, check who's around that criminal, to use her words.
Is that what you are actually saying? I mean, it certainly doesn't seem to be what we're seeing in the videos. Are all these videos, are there criminals like just off-camera, and that's why ICE feels emboldened? And that's what Noem is saying.
MORIARTY: That's a lie. In fact, is she claiming that that police officer who was off-duty was doing anything wrong when she got boxed in in her car? The video you were just playing was a woman who was yelling. I am disabled, I'm on my way to a doctor's appointment, and she got cut out of that car and hauled away. You can see in the video.
By the way, the department's own statistics say that more than 50 percent of the people that they have arrested do not have a criminal record. Do not. So we're talking about people who may not have status here, but they do not have criminal records. And so by their own statistics, they are not telling the truth.
And right now, if you do not have white skin, you are in danger of being approached by ICE or pulled over or boxed in and having ICE demand to see your proof of citizenship. It doesn't matter whether you're a citizen or not. Obviously, it doesn't matter if you're a police officer or a doctor or a nurse.
We have businesses closing down because workers are afraid to go to work. We have kids who are being driven to school by other people because their parents are afraid to drive them to school.
COOPER: I don't want to let that sentence go by because I think what you said is really incredibly alarming. You are the prosecutor for Hennepin County, and you were saying if you don't have white skin, there's a good chance you can be pulled over and somebody with a mask on demand your identification and proof of citizenship.
MORIARTY: Yes, we've seen that over and over. Many reports of that.
[20:35:00]
And if you have white skin, too, we -- and you are peacefully protesting, we've seen that as well. We saw a video where a woman was videoing whatever ICE was doing in a car in front of her, and the ICE agents were saying, haven't you learned? And one of the ICE agents came back to her driver's door and said, haven't you learned? And she said, what do you mean by that? And he refers to the shooting and killing of Renee Goode.
COOPER: Mary Moriarty --
MORIARTY: And she was exercising -- yes.
COOPER: Go ahead.
MORIARTY: She was exercising her constitutional rights. We have a federal court order right now in place. Imagine having to have a federal court order that tells ICE that they cannot gas peaceful protesters. We have an order in place --
COOPER: That court order basically states the law. I mean, it's not like it's some --
MORIARTY: Yes.
COOPER: -- radical judge. It's simply stating basic law in the United States of America.
MORIARTY: And the administration is appealing it. And one might ask, why are they appealing an order that says that they can't gas people that are exercising their First Amendment rights.
COOPER: And it's interesting they're appealing it because Kristi Noem actually came out and said, oh, well, we're already doing all of that. We're following that order without, you know, they don't need a judge's order but then they're appealing that order. That seems contradictory.
MORIARTY: Right. It does.
COOPER: Mary Moriarty, I appreciate your time tonight. Thank you. Hennepin County attorney. MORIARTY: Of course. Thank you.
COOPER: Coming up next, The New York Times' Russ Buettner on his paper's remarkable new accounting of how the Trump family has turned a second Trump presidency into a billion-dollar moneymaker in just one year.
And later, contrast the images we're used to seeing when it comes to North Korean propaganda. CNN investigates how the regime has lately been going Hollywood.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:41:02]
COOPER: It's been clear that the president and his family have been profiting hugely during Mr. Trump's first year in office. But today, The New York Times editorial board published an estimate of just how much they've raked in over the past 12 months. By their accounting, it's at least $1.4 billion.
Now, that includes income from licensing Trump's name, overseas real estate projects, as well as hundreds of millions of dollars from investments in cryptocurrencies, the money that Amazon paid Melania Trump -- the family for a documentary about Melania Trump.
The New York Times Investigative Reporter Russ Buettner is here. This -- it is staggering a figure of nearly $1.4 billion. I mean, it's closer to $1.5 billion. It's incredible. Did it surprise you?
RUSS BUETTNER, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER, THE NEW YORK TIMES: It's absolutely shocking. I think it's been shocking every month. I mean, I studied Donald Trump's finances, including obtaining his tax returns of some colleagues for over a 20-year period. And this amount is really greater than the sum total of everything he made from his inheritance, from being on The Apprentice, and from all the licensing deals while he was on The Apprentice.
COOPER: It's more than he ever made in his whole life.
BUETTNER: I think it's -- those things were his big profit centers because his business performance was uneven.
COOPER: Right.
BUETTNER: So those three things that require really his golden days, this is more than that all in one year.
COOPER: And, I mean, this is just the first year. It seems like there's no reason why -- I mean, they're open for business.
BUETTNER: They're open for business, and they've been expanding things on a regular basis, especially into cryptocurrencies. They recently just transformed their social media company into a Bitcoin repository company, which is a cryptocurrency. And now they're moving that into some sort of power generation company. But they are just rapidly trying to gather every sort of business that they can to monetize this period.
COOPER: The brazenness of it is remarkable. I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, Donald Trump Jr., I don't think the club that Donald Trump Jr. set up in Washington was like a private members club, which essentially kind of promises access for paying members of the club to government officials and cabinet secretaries.
BUETTNER: That's right.
COOPER: That wasn't part of this $1.5 --
BUETTNER: That's not part of this, no. And that really seems kind of quaint compared to what they're doing in cryptocurrencies, where it looks like over the last year, they've personally pocketed the family and a few partners, somewhere in the neighborhood of $800 million or more. That's unheard of wealth for them.
COOPER: And there's linkage, a lot of linkage between the businesses and, you know, places the U.S. is actually involved in doing, you know, U.S. foreign policy and, I mean, U.S. interests.
BUETTNER: Yes, I mean, a lot of this money comes -- the cryptocurrency money comes to them anonymously. We don't know. The public can't figure out who it is. Most of it comes from overseas entities. You can tell that from the exchanges it goes through.
And a lot of it, as you said, comes from countries where they have a real interest in it. There's been some direct conflicts, especially with a big deal that came through the United Arab Emirates. They decided to use a Trump cryptocurrency to pay for a $2 billion investment.
COOPER: Right. Which is -- I mean, no, very few people would have chosen to use that particular cryptocurrency.
BUETTNER: It was brand new and struggling and unproven. And they did that. That will put about $80 to $100 million a year in the pockets of the Trumps. And within a few months, within a few weeks, actually, Trump decided to overturn a policy that had long rejected the UAE's pleas to get A.I. computer chips from us because they were thought to be too close to China.
He just did away with that and then pardoned the fellow who was on the other end of the deal. So there's like two conflicts in one deal.
COOPER: It's remarkable.
Russ Buettner is in The Times today. Thank you so much. Appreciate it.
BUETTNER: Thank you.
COOPER: Expanding on the conversation, another data point. President Trump gave the crypto industry its biggest policy win last July. When he signed a bill, he was pushing to federally regulate a type of cryptocurrency called stable coins.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[20:45:03]
TRUMP: And I pledged that we would bring back American liberty and leadership and make the United States the crypto capital of the world, and that's what we've done. So the golden age of America is upon us. And with today's signing, the future of crypto and the crypto industry, the U.S. dollar working together because they really are hand in hand, is going to be stronger and bigger and better than ever before.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Critics raise conflict of interest concerns given President Trump and his family's vast crypto holdings. Joining me now is journalist and co-founder of Lift Our Voices Gretchen Carlson, also CNN Political Commentator Ana Navarro and David Urban.
Gretchen, do the numbers, I mean, do they fall into the category of, you know, shocking, not surprising?
GRETCHEN CARLSON, JOURNALIST: One million, 10 billion, I mean, no, not necessarily surprising. But here's my take on this. I don't think his base cares about this because he was already a billionaire on paper, at least when he originally won the first election. They didn't care about that. They didn't care about it the next time around.
More importantly, he floods the market with so many news stories on a daily basis that this story has a hard time gaining traction when you're taking over Venezuela, potentially invading Greenland and have ice in in Minnesota. And more importantly, I think that the majority of Americans right now are thinking about the economy. They're thinking about how they're going to afford their groceries at the store the next day.
And so, you know, I think Americans are exasperated by everything else that's going on. And it's only been one year. And I'm not sure that this is the kind of story that people --
COOPER: Ana, do you think people care?
ANA NAVARRO, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think some people care. I think what was different with this story from The New York Times today is that we have heard, you know, trickles of information. We've heard about the cryptocurrency. We've heard about the Melania documentary on Amazon. We've heard about the real estate deals outside of the country.
But to see it all together and see that it amounts to almost $2 billion --
COOPER: I mean, people claim declare -- claimed when it was Hunter Biden on a board for Burisma or selling paintings.
NAVARRO: Right, which is like a pittance, right. I mean, you're literally talking pennies in comparison to what this grift is. They've turned -- the entire Trump family has turned the White House and the presidency and not just the Trump family, also some of his cabinet members into the home shopping network. And they are figuring out how to exploit that presidency to line their pockets.
I think it is particularly galling and disgusting for him to be claiming that affordability is a hoax. Well, of course, it's a hoax for him because he's out there hawking everything he absolutely can. Well, regular Americans don't have that luxury now, do they?
COOPER: David, The New York Times editorial board writes, "It's impossible to know how often Mr. Trump makes official decisions in part or entirely because he wants to be richer. And that is precisely the problem." I mean, I remember the president didn't like when the Obama's got a deal with Netflix after they left the White House. Melania Trump has a deal while she's in the White House with Amazon.
DAVID URBAN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes. So Anderson, yes, Anderson, just a couple of data points here. You know, shame on The New York Times for not crediting Bernie Sanders with this. Bernie Sanders had an Instagram post about three and a half weeks ago chronicling this, showing that the Trump family has increased their net worth by about 273 percent, talking about Bitcoin and these exact things.
A couple other data points, Anderson, Newsweek cites that during the first Trump presidency, Trump's net worth went from $3.5 billion down to $2. -- excuse me, $3.7 billion to $2.5 billion. So he lost $1.2 billion during the first presidency. And Trump is a piker, a piker compared to two prior presidents in the amount of money they made.
Bill Clinton, OK, when Bill Clinton entered office, this is an after office, this is during his presidency, Bill Clinton entered office with $1.2 million dollars in the bank. When Bill Clinton left office, he had $120 million in the bank. That is a staggering 900 -- excuse me, 9,990 percent increase, 9,990 percent increase.
When Barack Obama entered the White House, he had $1.3 million. This is all publicly disclosed. He had $1.3 million in the bank. He left the White House with $40 million. That's a staggering 5,500 percent increase in his net worth. Yet no one was wringing their hands. There was no New York Times expose on Bill Clinton or Barack Obama.
COOPER: What foreign governments --
URBAN: The Trump family --
COOPER: What foreign governments --
URBAN: Anderson --
COOPER: -- were in the deals with that that the money was coming from foreign governments that you could decide?
URBAN: Well, you know what, Anderson -- yes. Interestingly, if you look at the ownership of all these book publishing companies, Simon & Schuster and others, they're all owned by foreign entities. So it's very convenient that all these guys get giant book deals with books that sit in warehouses that are never sold, but yet they're all owned by foreign entities.
[20:50:03]
If you follow money, Anderson, it's pretty easy to find out, right? It may not be as clear as this, you know, what you're alleging is happening in this administration, but it's happened in every administration. And it is fine this is -- that this is shocking somehow. While the Clintons and Obamas and everybody else did it, nobody blinked an eye.
And listen --
COOPER: But David, I mean, David, the level --
URBAN: Yes?
COOPER: -- of brazenness of this, I mean, look, I understand they got lucrative book deals and the parent -- you know, the -- maybe there's foreign owners from these publishing houses, but I mean, I'm not sure of the quid pro quo that you're alleging.
URBAN: Yes.
COOPER: It certainly seems like, I mean, Ana, do you think this is the same thing?
NAVARRO: Well, also listen, what happened after Bill Clinton and after Barack Obama was Joe Biden. And we all saw his son get raked over the coals and get scrutinized, which I think was the right thing for Congress to do. The problem that we have here is that Congress has abdicated its duty to provide a check and balance to provide any oversight.
And that in turn has left Donald Trump and those around him unrestrained. And they have taken that lack of restraint and turned it into billions of dollars of grifting. One of the things that the New York Times didn't include was the dramatic hike in the Mar-a-Lago membership fees. And of course, people are paying $1 million plus to become a member there because they get to rub shoulders with the secretary of state and the secretary of Commerce and the secretary of the Treasury.
COOPER: Gretchen, do you see any pressure in the next few years that this wouldn't go on, or do you think that this is just the beginning?
CARLSON: I think it's just the beginning. And the part that actually upsets me the most is the money that Trump was able to get from the media. I mean, to me, you have guardrails in this society, right? You have courts and you have the media. Those are two of the most important guardrails.
In that report, you saw that $90 million from media organizations has gone to Trump. And that's scary to me as a journalist, because it sets an amazing precedent and not in a good way. So to me, that was the most important thing that we should be paying attention to. You know, every president has made money.
COOPER: David, go ahead.
URBAN: Yes, I would just say Gretchen, I'm sure they paid that money out because their lawyers advise them they may lose the case.
CARLSON: No.
URBAN: If they lose the case, the damage --
CARLSON: That's --
URBAN: -- would be much, much more significant. Oh, that's not the case. You've talked to their lawyers?
CARLSON: No, but --
URBAN: I find it incredulous.
CARLSON: -- legal experts have said that they would have won those cases.
NAVARRO: Most legal experts have said that there is no way that Paramount and CBS would have lost the case about 60 Minutes. You know this.
CARLSON: Yes.
COOPER: It seems to me that a lot of those cases -- well, we could argue about this. I mean, there were plenty of people who said those cases were winnable, but there were larger corporate concerns that, you know, the parent company doesn't care about whether something is right or wrong. They just need a deal to be done.
And in this administration, if you want a deal to be done, you have to, you know --
NAVARRO: Pay $40 million for the Melania documentary.
COOPER: Go ahead, David. Just final thought.
URBAN: I would just say, finally, if you'd like to -- if anybody there on the panel would like to be paid in Trump meme coin, if you think it's such a big, you know, grift that you like to get paid, I can arrange that to happen. So these coins are very, very speculative. It may be worth $100 million today and a penny tomorrow. So --
NAVARRO: Yes, but people are buying them for a reason, David. People are buying a speculative --
COOPER: We got to go.
NAVARRO: -- coin that's pretty worthless for a reason to suck up to the president.
COOPER: I got to go. Up next, how North Korea's state run film industry is changing in its own authoritarian way. We'll have that ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:57:51]
COOPER: Movie with graphic violence is getting attention, but it's not from Hollywood. Here's Will Ripley.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): North Korea's nationalist propaganda is taking on a different style these days. Blockbuster movies like this designed to grab the attention of younger viewers.
One character is suffocated with a plastic bag. Graphic violence never seen in a North Korean movie until now. "Days and Nights of Confrontation" aired on State TV for the first time this month. The film takes place in the 1990s, built around a real-life train explosion rumored to be targeting North Korea's late leader, Kim Jong- il.
JUSTIN MARTELL, AMERICAN FILMMAKER AND TOUR GUIDE: To see it as a proper storyline in a North Korean film was extremely interesting and definitely a first.
RIPLEY (voice-over): Justin Martell is an American filmmaker and tour guide. He saw the movie in North Korea last year, even meeting the film's lead actress. The movie won Best Sound Effects and Best Actor at the Pyongyang International Film Festival.
MARTELL: And I will say there was some partial nudity as well, which I've also certainly never seen in a DPRK movie.
RIPLEY (voice-over): During its theatrical run, scenes like this showing an extramarital affair captivated North Korean audiences. And this showing a suicide bomb vest. The story centers on betrayal, including a husband turning on his own wife and on his own country.
MARTELL: In recent years, the government has gotten much more involved and put a lot more money into these productions.
RIPLEY (voice-over): North Korea's fixation on movies goes back decades. This is secretly recorded audio of Kim Jong-un's father, Kim Jong-il, revealed in the 2016 documentary, "The Lovers and the Despot." Kim ran North Korea's film industry, famously keeping a massive motion picture library.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translation): People don't even want anything new.
RIPLEY (voice-over): On the tapes, Kim criticized his own movies, comparing them to more sophisticated South Korean pictures, complaining North Korean films at the time were too repetitive and out of touch. UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translation): Why do they insist on filming nothing but people crying for all scenes, like there's been a death in the family?
RIPLEY: To realize his dreams of world-class North Korean movies, Kim Jong-il used a familiar tactic in his day that sounds like a Hollywood plot itself. He kidnapped a South Korean movie star and her director ex-husband, and it happened right here in Hong Kong.
RIPLEY (voice-over): The year was 1978. North Korean agents abducted Choi Eun-hee and Shin Sang-ok, taking both to Pyongyang, forcing them to make 17 films for Kim Jong-il.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: That was Will Ripley reporting.
The news continues. "The Source" starts now.
