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Trump On Push To Take Over Greenland: "We Have To Have It"; Europeans Struggle To Celebrate Response To Trump's Demand; CNN Poll: 58 Percent Of Americans Say Trump's First Year Was A Failure; Steve Bannon: "We Haven't Met Any Resistance"; Trump: "I Don't Think There's Been A Term Like It". Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired January 20, 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]

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: 27-21 is the final, Wolf. And for the first time ever the Indiana Hoosiers college football national champs. And the scenes back in Bloomington, showing exactly, Wolf, how much it means to Hoosier Nation.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN CO-ANCHOR, THE SITUATION ROOM: I'm very happy for the Hoosiers. Coy Wire, thank you very, very much. And to our viewers, thanks very much for joining me this morning. Inside Politics with our friend and colleague, Dana Bash, is coming up next.

DANA BASH, CNN HOST, INSIDE POLITICS: The world, according to Trump. The president marks one year back in office by threatening America's most trusted allies.

I'm Dana Bash. Let's go behind the headlines at Inside Politics.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I Donald John Trump do solemnly swear.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I Donald John Trump do solemnly swear.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: One year ago today, at almost precisely this minute, President Trump was sworn in as the nation's 47th president. In the days since at full throttle, the president has up ended every part of Washington, domestic and global politics. The U.S. is experiencing a level of disruption and audacious use of executive power like few alive today have ever seen.

You can see it on major American cities, the streets, federal deportation agents, National Guard troops, patrolling after new policies effectively sealed the southern border from new migrant crossings illegally.

And at the Justice Department, where a long list of the president's personal enemies are under federal investigation. If not with his explicit order, certainly they have his implicit demands in their minds, because meanwhile, also what's going on is numerous friends, allies and friends of allies have been pardoned of serious federal crimes, often with little explanation.

And overseas, President Trump's so-called Donroe Doctrine calls for dominating the western hemisphere, which is his foreign policy focus, appears to be at least this year, as his second year of his second term begins. The U.S. captured Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro and Trump has called himself the country's acting leader.

The Pentagon is blowing up boats in the Caribbean. The administration claims are carrying drugs. And today, America's oldest allies are reeling as the president demands ownership of Greenland, threatening to use force, if necessary, to take it from Denmark.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I don't think they're going to push back too much. Look, we have to have it. They have to have this done. They can't protect it because the boat went there 500 years ago and then left. That doesn't give you title to property. So, we'll be talking about it with the various people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: And tonight, the president is flying to Davos, Switzerland, to the World Economic Forum. It's rapidly becoming an emergency summit to save the post-world war two western order, which the president seems to revel in rattling.

I'm joined by a terrific group of reporters today. Thank you so much, everyone, one and all for being here. David, your thoughts on this momentous anniversary?

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR & WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF: Well, I mean, I think you laid it out really well. Obviously, it's been a year full of consequence, and I think you can look at what President Trump has done over the course of this first year back in office, as seizing power in every way he possibly can, and being allowed to do so because this is unlike term one.

There are no guardrails inside the West Wing because of the loyalist he appointed. Unlike term one, there aren't a lot of non-Trump Republicans on Capitol Hill willing to push back, and so it's a party totally made up in his image. Unlike Trump won, the courts are stocked with a lot more of Trump appointees, including at the Supreme Court. And we see it in, you know, the law firms and now we're seeing it in European capitals as well. And on the global stage, they're just -- he is seizing power and he's being allowed to do so. And I think that's sort of been definitional for him in this year.

BASH: So, let's talk more about that in a bit. But I do want to sort of focus on what's happening in the here and the now on the global stage, on the world stage. Emmanuel Macron is already in Davos. He has spoken about what the president is doing, did overnight and is continuing to push on the notion of acquiring in some way, shape or form, Greenland from Denmark. [12:05:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRES. EMMANUEL MACRON, FRANCE: It's a time of peace, stability and predictability. It's as well a shift towards a war without rules, where international law is trampled under foot, and were the only law that seems to matter is that of the strongest.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: So that was Emmanuel Macron. He is being probably or definitely the most aggressive in saying what he thinks publicly than others.

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We don't need bullies. The French president saying we don't need bullies, and he's talking about the president of the United States. As we sit here, Western European democracies are sending troops to Greenland for military exercises, to send a message of deterrence to the United States of America, a fellow NATO ally.

The president is threatening tariffs again if they don't go along with his Greenland plan. Overnight, the president of the United States, something we try to tell our children not to do. Posted an AI generated image that shows Greenland, Canada and Venezuela as part of, I guess, the Donroe doctrine and part of the United States of America.

Disruption was big in the first term. Disruption is big again, from a policy perspective, he is up ending alliances. From a political perspective, he is creating a lot of trouble for himself and his party, the election. If the Congress won't stand up to him and the courts don't stand up to him, then the only choice if you don't like what you get.

And our polling suggests a big slice of America doesn't like what it's getting. That's in November. We're having a conversation in late January. He says, he will not go back. There's no going back on this Greenland. He's on his way to Europe. Now, he's changed his mind a lot of times before. He's changed his mind a lot. Consistency is not a Trump trademark, but this is a giant moment.

So, as we go through this election year, does he mean it? Is he going to send U.S. troops to Greenland? Is he going to really go through with these tariffs and upend the world economy, which would be a giant policy decision. But again, the political ramifications for the president at home, he is the leader of the Republican Party. At the moment those Republicans are largely silent, but they are beyond nervous.

BASH: Yeah, no question about that. And I want to get to that in one moment. I do want to play what the Greenland Prime Minister Nia said this morning about the potential for the U.S. military to be on his land.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JENS-FREDERIK NIELSEN, GREENLAND PRIME MINISTER: It's not likely that there will be a use of military force, but it has not been ruled out, yet. This leader from the other side has made it very clear that he's not ruled out, and therefore we must, of course, be prepared for everything. But we must emphasize that Greenland is part of the Western alliance NATO. And if there is further escalation, it will also have consequences for the entire outside world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, BLOOMBERG POLITICAL & POLICY COLUMNIST: Listen, you heard Trump there when he was talking to the press, he said they aren't going to push back too much, right? We'll see, right? Certainly, I think Europe needs to be prepared to push back. It seems like at this point, Trump basically wants to seize Greenland through tweets, right, in tariffs. It's 10 percent tariff. This would be a tax, obviously, on Americans.

But it doesn't seem like he is willing to really put any boots on the ground, any real power behind these threats in the way that he did with Venezuela. If you see, for instance, what he's done with Canada, there was this like, oh, it's going to be the 51st state, when Mark Carney stood up to him in that Oval Office, and basically, sort of embarrassed him. He kind of stopped talking about Canada as the 51st state.

So, I think that's the real question. How far is Donald Trump actually willing to go to acquire Greenland? It's not going to happen just through tariffs, and it's not going to happen just through these sort of cutesy tweets.

BASH: Well, and I think the answer to that is directly related to what you are certainly hearing when you go out and travel across the country. John, and I'm sure, what you're all hearing from Republicans. I'm certainly hearing, and I'd love to know what you think, Leigh Ann, because you still spend a lot of time on Capitol Hill that we don't know how this is going to end.

But it seems to me that the president is -- my understanding is that the president is getting a message and a reminder that this is one of the few things that if he were to follow through, Congress does need, the Senate does need to officially make Greenland. I can't believe I'm saying these words but officially make Greenland part of the U.S. and that the votes are not there even among Republicans. So, like, slow your roll, Mr. President.

LEIGH ANN CALDWELL, CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, PUCK: Yeah. This is -- this is -- this could be another test for Congress, right? We'll see how far this goes. Right now, talking to Republicans publicly on the Hill, they will say, look, the president is not going to do this by military force. Maybe he's going to try to purchase. Right now, they're trying to rationalize publicly, where -- they think the president stands. It's a lot of wish casting at this point, but a lot has changed over the weekend, too, since last -- they were in town last weekend.

[12:10:00]

You know, Senator Chris Coons was led a codel to Denmark this weekend. There -- it was bipartisan, but it's also notable who the two Republicans on this codel were. Senator Tom Tillis and Senator Lisa Murkowski, two of the people who are willing to speak out against this president.

But one of the most shocking things that Senator Coons told me when I called him on Saturday was, look these world leaders, these European leaders, they are really grappling with what they have to do if they have to start looking at the United States as an enemy, which is something that was just really shocking to hear out loud, something that we're discussing. But you know, as John said, he's changing the world order and to one that he wants to his benefit, not the world's.

BASH: As we go to break, I just want to say because I was just told in my ear that Tom Tillis, the senator, the Republican who's retiring from North Carolina, who was in Denmark is in Davos now, and he's wearing a pin on his lapel that has both the American flag and the flag of Denmark on it. So interesting, you know, which we'll talk about -- I think really fits into what happens when Republicans are running for reelection and not running for reelection.

And there is a big divide over that with regard to how they approached this president one year ago, at this very moment. President Trump was giving his second inaugural address. We're going to take a deep, deep breath and try to put all of that in perspective, all of what has happened in the last year. And as we go to break, some of the iconic images of President Trump's first year back in office.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:15:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BASH: President Trump says, he's feeling good about his first year in office.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I don't think there's been a term like it. I don't think any president has had a better first year than we've had in terms of success. Again, we've taken our country from a failure with open borders, no business, everything going badly, terrific inflation, the highest inflation in history, prices that are through the roof and we brought prices down. We have very little inflation. We have a great economy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: I want to bring in my panel of great reporters, bring them back. And as I do, we're going to put on the screen a scroll of some of what has happened over the past year. It's a stroll down memory lane. And it's long, but I want to emphasize it is not a comprehensive list, so listen and watch. And John, take it away. KING: You get a little whiplash if you go through that because some of it is inconsistent. Tariffs are on, tariffs are off, this and that. What -- you just heard the president say right there. Either he or the American people are living in a parallel universe, or the least, living in universes parallel from each other. He is right. Border crossings are down, and that is an achievement he could celebrate, especially because it was a bipartisan frustration of the American people, the relatively open border policies of the Biden administration.

However, some prices are down, but inflation remains persistent. And if you match it against the president's campaign promises, I will cut your electricity bill in half. I've been traveling the country, electricity bills are going that way, not that way. I will fix prices. Inflation will be over. It will be easy, is what the president said. Some prices have come down, but inflation remains a persistent problem.

Beyond that, we could go through these specifics, not quite as many as you have in that scroll, but we could go through a lot of specifics. It's just -- how is the country feeling, right? Again, 58 percent of the country views his first year as a failure. That means a decent amount of Republicans and a whole lot of independents because it's not just -- it's not just Democrats who said.

He's underwater on the economy and inflation, on healthcare, on commander-in-chief. The country does not feel the way he does. And his job as president is to lead the country, lead the country from a policy standpoint, and his job as president is to lead his party from a political standpoint. And the way he describes it is simply not the reality in much of America.

The MEGA base, loves it. They love controversy, they love disruption. They love that everybody is mad. But the MEGA base is not big enough to win elections, and it's not big enough to lead a country.

BASH: Leigh Ann, I'm going to read a quote from Steve Bannon from an Atlantic piece by Ashley Parker. Remember our strategy? I say it every day is maximalist, a maximalist strategy. You have to take it however deep you can take it, and quite frankly, until you meet resistance and we haven't met any resistance. I mean, this is like -- to me, this could be the title of any book so far about the Trump presidency, or at least Trump 2.0.

CALDWELL: Yeah. It's pretty incredible how much the president has been able to do and how everything has just -- everyone has just allowed him, really to do it. The guardrails have been tested and not necessarily constrained him yet. I will never forget a conversation I had with Senator Dick Durbin that, Democrats number too. It was in the last year of Trump's first term, and he said, look, our country can withstand someone like Donald Trump for one term.

[12:20:00]

He said I'm not sure about a second term. That's the question. Obviously, Trump lost. But now he is serving his second term, and in that time, he had a team of devoted people who worked for four years to try to figure out what they can do, the loop holes in the laws, how they can get around it, what boundaries they can push on everything on this scroll that we're seeing.

And they were ready on day one. They came in, and they are doing it, and he is doing it very aggressively. So, we'll see where this goes as Congress has handed over so much of their power and authority, and it could be the legacy of Speaker Mike Johnson.

HENDERSON: And that still remains the surprise, the sort of obeying in advance with Donald Trump. You know, I think when Donald Trump, in the beginning, started to name the people he wanted to be in his cabinet, there was this disbelief around people like Pete Hegseth, Tulsi Gabbard, other folks.

And when Congress just went along in putting these folks who were clearly syncope events, who were clearly going to do whatever Trump wanted them to do, and clearly unqualified in so many instances. That was sort of the test early on, that he was going to be able to do whatever he wanted, that Congress was not going to stand in his way, that Congress was not going to stand up for themselves and for their role. And that's the continuing, I think, story.

One of the things for me that has been most jarring, even though people think it might have been something small, was the absolute destruction of the East Wing, right? To turn off that, to turn on the TV, and look at those bulldozers just leveling the people's house with no real forewarning and no objection, and the fact that it's billionaires, right? So, it gets to sort of the corruption of this administration that they're going to pay for this, you know, this ballroom. So, yeah.

BASH: Yes. So, David, they obviously talked about Congress, which is quite an important branch legislative of the U.S. government.

(CROSSTALK)

BASH: It supposed to be. It was ask any of them Article One, it was mentioned first. But the whole construct of the constitution with the balance of powers is that one doesn't get too big. And the president is so aggressively gobbling up as much power as he can, and there have been no stop signs in Congress. And through the courts, maybe some yellow blinking lights, but that once things get to the Supreme Court so far, we'll see what happens with tariffs. But so far, it's been, you know, maybe yield, but go on through Mr. President.

CHALIAN: Which is why, either way the Supreme Court rules on tariffs is going to be definitional to this equation, right? Either Steve Bannon is right, literally no resistance has been met or not. I also want to make one micro political point, listening to you talk about the cabinet appointments. Think about the news today, right, about the Louisiana Senate race.

So, Cassidy votes for RFK Jr. in this mode to try and preserve his own political future in a party remade of Trump. And what does it get him, a Trump back primary challenge nonetheless, even though he gave his vote for RFK Jr. to be in the cabinet. So, even those that did early on set the stage being like, this is going to be whatever Trump appease him, and that will be our self-preservation. That doesn't necessarily look like it may work.

BASH: Bill Cassidy voted for impeachment.

CHALIAN: Exactly, and retribution matters more than --

BASH: Exactly. Well, because the president is convinced that he can communicate his agenda better than anybody. He is going to appear at the White House briefing, and that's going to happen today at 1 p.m. eastern in about 35 minutes. We're going to talk much more about all of this after a quick break. Don't go anywhere.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:25:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BASH: Promises made, promises kept. Here are just some of what President Trump promised in his inaugural address one year ago today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: The vicious, violent and unfair weaponization of the Justice Department and our government will end. I will send troops to the southern border to repel the disastrous invasion of our country. We will tariff and tax foreign countries to enrich our citizens. We are going to bring law and order back to our cities. My proudest legacy will be that of a peacemaker and unifier. We are going to be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: My panel is back now. I'm just sticking out to me is my proudest legacy will be that of a peacemaker and unifier. And that's why he has lost, you know, some the most prominent, I mean, that's another thing that happened this year. He lost Marjorie Taylor Greene, and then just left because she said that was what MAGA was supposed to be. So far, it doesn't seem like that is sort of sprinkling down to the roots of MAGA. They're still with him, but we'll see.