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Trump: "I No Longer Feel An Obligation To Think Purely Of Peach"; Trump Threatens Europe, Demands Control Of Greenland; 1500 Federal Troops On Standby For Possible Deployment Of Minnesota; Trump Endorses Potential Primary Challenger To Sen. Cassidy. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired January 19, 2026 - 12:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[12:00:00]

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR, THE SITUATION ROOM: And for many, his fight against injustice resonates as strongly today as it did when he was assassinated in 1968. Americans are encouraged to use today, not as a day off, but as a day of service, volunteering and giving back to their community.

Well, thank you so much for joining us this morning. Inside Politics today with Audie Cornish starts right now. See you back here tomorrow.

AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR & SENIOR ANALYST: President Trump says nothing is off the table when it comes to Greenland. And America's oldest allies are now forced to question everything about their centuries' old alliance with America.

I'm Audie Cornish, in for Dana Bash. Let's go behind the headlines at Inside Politics.

OK, no comment. That's what President Trump had to say this morning to NBC News after whether he'd -- about whether he'd use force to seize Greenland territory belonging to a NATO ally. So, no one's laughing anymore about Trump's years long yearning for the Arctic island.

Today, America's oldest friends are reeling as Trump threatens economic warfare and potentially warfare too, to take Greenland. And one reason, it seems, is kind of personal peak. He sent this message to the prime minister of Norway. I'm going to read it to you in full, because it sounds like this.

Dear Jonas, considering your country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped eight wars plus, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America. He goes on. Denmark cannot protect that land from Russia or China, and why do they have a quote, right of ownership anyway. There are no written documents. It's only that a boat landed there hundreds of years ago, but we had boats landing there also.

President says, I have done more for NATO than any other person since its founding, and now NATO should do something for the United States. The world is not secure unless we have complete and total control of Greenland. So then, in that interview with NBC, Trump said Europe should focus on Ukraine, not Greenland.

I'm joined now by a terrific group of reporters. You guys, thanks so much for being here. It looks like we're being presented with a choice, which is Greenland or NATO. I don't know what this president is eyeing. But I want to start with you, Steven, what do you see in the way he has turned this just more bellicose?

STEPHEN COLLINSON, CNN POLITICS SENIOR REPORTER: First of all, amazing that world leaders communicate by text like all the rest of us. I mean, that's one thing that shows how Trump has changed the presidency. But I think the problem the Europeans have here is their argument to Trump is, look, let's deescalate. We can find a solution to this. The most important thing is the alliance. But it's not clear that Trump really cares that much about the alliance. He's always given the impression, ever since his first term, that he sees it as a U.S. protection racket.

You know, NATO is about all for one and one for all. Trump is more about the one for all thing, both personally and in American foreign policy. American foreign policy is now about using American strength unilaterally to advance American interests. That is exactly what he said in that text message. It's exactly what is the foundation of the new national security strategy.

CORNISH: I want to play also the Republican voices who were sort of asked about this over the last couple of days and the criticism is not exactly fiery. Here is a bit of a roundup.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MIKE MCCAUL (R-TX): The President has full military access to Greenland to protect us from any threat. So, if he wants to purchase Greenland, that's one thing, but for him to militarily invade would turn Article 5 of NATO on its very head. And in essence, put us at war with NATO itself.

REP. MIKE TURNER (R-OH): Certainly, this is problematic that the president has made this statement and has caused, you know, tension among the alliance.

SEN. RAND PAUL (R-KY): I'm hoping that we don't get to a military invasion. I kind of actually don't think we're going to, because quietly, there is not a Republican that's come up to me and said, oh yes, I'll back him to the hilt.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: There is this weird balance between, let's just kind of hope this isn't real and, gee, this seems really real. Should we say something? What do you make of the responses here?

TIA MITCHELL, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, THE ATLANTA JOURNAL- CONSTITUTION: Yeah. I think Republicans are hoping they don't have to get to the point where they have to make a choice whether -- get to a point where they have to vote on a war powers resolution or something to actually formally rain President Trump again, most of them would not want to take that vote.

[12:05:00]

And then the question comes if it gets to that. And every day, as his rhetoric continues, it appears that it may have to get to that if Congress does not want boots on the ground in Greenland. It appears that they may have to step in.

I think the other thing that I think is starting to sink in with Republicans is how much of President Trump's foreign policy is informed by his own personal grievances that don't necessarily have a direct connection to national security or diplomacy. And so, you've got to understand him personally and where he falls to fully understand some of the decisions he's making.

CORNISH: It's also sinking in with some independents. CNN did some polling. We got to ask this question about whether or not, you know, U.S. voters want the U.S. to attempt to take Greenland. I just want to show it for you there. 82 percent oppose. So, it's just pushing further down the road that people take more seriously, probably because of Venezuela and the actions there. What are you thinking as you're doing your reporting, Michelle?

MICHELLE PRICE, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, AP: Well, I mean, one of the things that drew people to President Trump's political movement in the first place was the idea of America first turning back to America's interests at home, not engaging in military action abroad. This seems to fly in the face of that, as the actions in Venezuela did, as some of the other saber rattling we've seen elsewhere.

But you know, if you're -- most Americans are still focused on costs, the costs that they're facing at home for groceries or gas. The president saying he's going to impose more tariffs. Those costs could eventually be passed along to American voters. And if I'm a Republican member of Congress, this is not welcome news for me, as I'm about to go up for election this year--

CORNISH: But don't you get to say, look, it means that we're going to have access to Greenland's natural resources and rare earths, and this is part of the policy of a party that willingly talked about drill -- baby drill for a long time.

COLLINSON: Yeah. And I think that's one of the problems the president had. How does he tie these foreign adventures to making Americans lives better? He's talking a lot in Venezuela about oil. But I think you're right. It's very hard for me to see, for example, a lawmaker who may be threatened in November, voting to either OK, hundreds of billions of dollars to buy Greenland or to even finance a massive military expansion there.

So, you know, it's problematic, and I think that's one of the things perhaps the Europeans are hoping will kick in if they threaten to hurt the American economy and the stock market. You know that Trump always looks very closely up, perhaps that can change his mind.

CORNISH: It's interesting because it's a kind of like neo-imperial approach, right? It's like Greenland. We want it. Canada should be 51st state. Panama, we should be in control of that. Like, you can see them kind of checking off the countries along the map and saying, this is our sphere now.

MITCHELL: Yeah, and it'd be different. Again, we know that President Trump was elected in part on a strong message of fixing the economy. And even when he talked about things like ending foreign wars, cracking down immigration, he still packaged them as these things will help bring the cost of goods down.

And one of the things that President Trump isn't doing much of at all is making that connection. You know, he talks about the oil in Venezuela, minerals in Greenland --

CORNISH: Oh, you know, there supposed to be a tour. It wasn't there?

PRICE: I thought he was going to start traveling on this and doing speeches.

CORNISH: And they said, yeah.

MITCHELL: And he's supposed to be doing speeches on affordability. And when he does, he talks about a lot of other things, his foreign policy, his personal grievances, even as the stops that he is making right now are supposed to be focused on affordability. So, it's a very muddled message. And he's not bringing the -- as the polling you just showed that he's not bringing the American public along to understanding he's not building support for these things he wants to do, particularly when it comes to other nations.

CORNISH: Can I ask one more thing, Steven? If you're Putin today, you must be feeling good. I mean, instead of worrying about NATO breaking up over anything you're doing to Ukraine, you're watching this slow- moving kind of freight train happen.

COLLINSON: Yeah. If there's one thing that Putin has made his entire political career about, it's been trying to dismantle NATO widen splits between the Europeans, the Americans. He has the American president doing that for him. You know, the idea that a NATO state could be attacked by another NATO state, let alone the most important NATO state, the United States, is incredible. Just looking at the press this morning in Moscow, there's absolute delirium among some of these Russian columnists about the prospect of this and how it could help Russian foreign policy.

CORNISH: OK. You guys, we're going to talk about this a little more. Stay with me. Next, I want to turn to the active guard military at the ready. And an insurrection act threat on the table as the U.S. honors the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. We're going to look at the relevancy of his message in today's world.

[12:10:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CORNISH: Right now, 1500 active-duty soldiers are preparing for a potential deployment to Minnesota. According to a Trump administration source, people are preparing for deployment is normal. Preparing for deployment to Minnesota is not and as President Trump threatens to invoke the Insurrection Act in Minneapolis, it would be a significant escalation to say the least.

[12:15:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TODD BLANCHE, DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL: President Trump has promised to keep the American people safe, and the fact that the local law enforcement, because their leadership is not doing their jobs. There may come a time when the president has to order that and we support him. The attorney general supports him because we have to keep the citizens safe.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: OK, reporters are back. Michelle, can I start with you because the president has sort of changed, talking about instituting the Insurrection Act. First it was like, I will do this, all capitals. And now it's like, sentence caps, no reason to use right now. Do you think he is hearing something in the public, or do you think this is just a moment?

PRICE: This is one of those things where we hear the president, he'll go back and forth on something, and sometimes he eventually just backs away, and sometimes out of the blue, he'll take a step. The homeland security secretary told us last week that she had a conversation with the president about this.

And she laid it out, Secretary Noem is, you know, it's an option for him in the future. She said she didn't really know which way he was leaning, and she didn't seem to indicate that she was encouraging him to take this step.

CORNISH: That's curious and of itself.

PRICE: Yeah, that she just said, we just had to talk about it. But it is -- it seems like one of those that there's certainly people within the administration who understand that this would be seen as kind of an explosive step that they would, you know, it's already kind of a tinder box situation there and this would various -- this would escalate matters on the ground in Minneapolis. But there are people within the administration who are very vocal for this. We heard Stephen Miller in interviews, describing what he sees on the streets as an insurrection.

CORNISH: Is the half step going after the leadership in Minnesota? You've got the Justice Department investigating Mayor Frey and the governor. Is this a way that's like not all the way Insurrection Act but still trying to create a political ramification.

MITCHELL: Yeah. And I think -- number one, I think this is another example where you have to calibrate the action on the ground with perhaps some personal thoughts President Trump may have about the leadership in Minnesota, in Minneapolis, so you can't separate the two. They all go hand in hand.

That being said, I think the tinder box that we've talked about is really important to keep in mind because every action is being -- is possibly escalating things. You know, whether it's the mayor having strong words, the governor having strong words, or the President Trump or White House officials having strong words.

CORNISH: I was thinking of Jake Lang being chased away. He's the sort of right-wing influencer who is trying to have a rally against Islam. I'm not even sure, but he didn't really get a chance because he pretty much got chased away by protesters.

MITCHELL: And so there, you know, I think there's real concern about where this could go next. What could happen next? There have already been, you know, there has been one person who has died, there have been multiple people who have been injured. There have been people who say they have been wrongfully detained as part of this escalation of ICE enforcement.

So, the question is, you know, what could happen next? And it's really troubling because, you know, both sides are, you know, very, very secure in where they are, and no signs of backing down.

CORNISH: Although, here's an example of Senator Ruben Gallego of Arizona. He was on Sunday State of the Union, and he's somebody who's been very like Democrats need to get their act together about immigration, talk about it in a way that it's taken seriously, and -- but here's how he talked about what's actually going on right now on Sunday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. RUBEN GALLEGO (D-AZ): ICE needs to be totally torn down. The portion of ICE, just to be clear, we're not showing you another rest of the government, the portion of ICE that is causing this kind of harm, racially profiling people, terrorizing our cities. I know the implications of that. I know the political implications potentially of that, but we cannot keep funding this, you know, this type of goon squads.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Goon squad.

COLLINSON: Yeah. I think there's a lot of concern about the -- what a lot of critics see is the politicized recruiting of ICE. The people see it as almost a political force, as much as an immigration force for some of the fact that --

CORNISH: I mean, their own social media feeds don't really help in that respect --

COLLINSON: Exactly. You know, I think Minnesota has become almost a focus of so many things that the administration wants to do. They almost want the tough policing to create a reaction, to create this picture of agitators coming out, the idea of conflict, so that Trump can be strong. I think the political problem is that you're talking about here.

That you mentioned was immigration was always a good issue for Trump, but now it's being split down, I think, between border which people still want a strong border, but they don't necessarily want this kind of draconian enforcement. Look at the polls, immigration, therefore, as a whole, issue is becoming more of a liability for the present than a strength. And that, I think, has to factor into some of the decision making about that the policing and the enforcement going forward.

[12:20:00]

CORNISH: Yes. People are seeing. I was looking into the numbers. You know, Minneapolis has 600 police officers. It's a small department, and then you've got something like 3000 federal agents marching around. They've -- the police office -- police chief there has talked about how difficult this has been, and I just want you guys to hear this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHIEF BRIAN O'HARA, MINNEAPOLIS POLICE: This 20-20 moment, all these tensions have been building, and I'm afraid we're going to have another moment where it'll all explodes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Is that the point going to Minneapolis, right? You're not doing it in Chicago, where there's bigger political bullies. You're not doing it in California. You're doing it in a place where you think there is a politically weak leadership to go after.

PRICE: I think that's part of it. I think the setting and the backdrop of all this, remember, there's the fraud scandal that's been going on there that that was part of the reason that there was this surge of federal resources or federal officers to Minneapolis, that this kind of fit with a lot of the arguments that the president -- the vice president had been making about immigrants in this country, about fraud with welfare systems. It seemed like a spotlight to draw all those issues together, and then you add in the protests on top of it and it has become this bigger tinder boxes.

CORNISH: Yeah, it is the flip side, needless to say, of Minnesota nice. OK, next. Revenge is a dish best served cold, President Trump kneecaps one of the last republicans who voted against him in his second impeachment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:25:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CORNISH: OK. You could call it the tragedy of Senator Bill Cassidy. President Trump may have blown up Cassidy's political career over the weekend when he endorsed Republican Congresswoman Julia Letlow for Cassidy's seat. Letlow hasn't said she's running but is now expected to jump into the primary to challenge Cassidy. Cassidy's crime, he was one of the republicans who voted to convict Trump during his second impeachment for incitement of insurrection after the January 6 attack on the Capitol.

Now, since then, he's done everything he can to win back a spot in the president's good graces. This is the pinned post, which means, it's there all the time on X. Great to be with POTUS in the Oval Office today. This is what a great working relationship looks like. That was back in October, and my things have changed.

So, is this that much of a surprise? I feel like, Letlow has been sort of percolating in the background for a time?

PRICE: It's not a surprise because of the impeachment vote. That is one thing that the president has made clear. I mean, loyalty is a premium for him, but that vote in particular, that he's had a list of folks he's in every time, anybody who voted for him, he has voted for impeachment. He has --

(CROSSTALK)

CORNISH: So, there's nothing he can do to get out of that gutter.

MITCHELL: Yeah, I don't think we haven't seen it. And I think they try. I think they try. I mean, Bill Cassidy -- Senator Cassidy voted, was a deciding vote to help RFK Jr. become Health and Human Services secretary, despite expressing several misgivings about --

CORNISH: Publicly and loudly, yeah.

MITCHELL: Publicly and loudly, but still did it because he's trying his best to give President Trump what he wants. Stay on President Trump's good side, but it's not enough. If President Trump decides you are not loyal enough, and I think President Trump decided that back at the impeachment.

CORNISH: OK. I want to play for you just a little bit of Cassidy. So first on Saturday, Cassidy had to, you know, come out and say, look, I'm proudly running for reelection as a principled conservative who gets things done for the people of Louisiana. And he says, if she decides to run, he's confident he will win.

And then way back in February, he was trying to explain his vote about Cassidy, because I think people were like, you've been saying, you don't want this about Kennedy. And here's what he said about his vote for RFK at that time.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BILL CASSIDY (R-LA): After seeing patients die from vaccine preventable diseases, I dedicated much of my time to vaccine research and immunization programs, personally witnessing the safety monitoring and the effectiveness of immunization. Put simply, vaccines save lives.

I will watch carefully for any effort to wrongfully sow public fear about vaccines between confusing references of coincidence and anecdote. But my support is built on insurances that this will not have to be a concern, and that he and I can work together to build an agenda to make America healthy again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Spoiler alert, it remained a concern. Things did not change. Was this cynical at the time?

COLLINSON: I think you could see in the confirmation hearing that Cassidy was being torn between his experience and duties as a physician and his obvious political experiences and wished to run again. There was a lot of talk before Christmas about Trump being a lame duck. He's still very feared by Republicans who have to have a primary at the very least.

And it gets to some of the dynamic of the mid-terms here because although he may be increasingly unpopular nationally, the president is still deeply popular in the Republican base, and you can't afford to go against him. And that's going to play into these issues that we were talking about before, about Greenland or Venezuela, it's still a hard vote if you're going against the president.

CORNISH: And fewer and fewer of people who are willing to do that, we're just going to leave you folks with this score card, the number of people who had sort of voted