Chapter 1: What recent events have heightened concerns about Trump's Greenland ambitions?
So last week, after the U.S. captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, I went to Capitol Hill and asked congressional Republicans the one question that's on everyone's mind. Are they just going to let President Trump get away with all this? President Trump was well within his authority to do what he did.
Most Republicans didn't want to talk or defended Trump's every move, which only made Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky stand out even more. If we start talking about Greenland, there is absolutely zero support among Republicans, none from Democrats and none from Republicans for invading Greenland.
Paul has been leading efforts to curb Trump's war powers, and he says the White House is pushing its luck. But considering how Congress has failed to stand up to Trump time and time again, why is this time any different? And when it comes to Trump's quest to acquire Greenland by any means necessary, who's going to stop him? That's next on Today Explained.
Chapter 2: How are congressional Republicans responding to Trump's actions?
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My name is Annie Greyer. I'm a senior reporter at CNN and I cover Congress.
You cover Congress, which feels like the place to be, particularly over the next couple weeks. It does seem like we're always asking a similar version of the question of, like, is this the time Republicans on Capitol Hill break from Trump? And I kind of want to ask it again today, but can we just start off with a, like, bigger overview?
I know we're entering into a midterms year, and that can sometimes cause people – particularly in Congress, to be a little more free. Do we expect that question of our Republicans breaking more with Trump to change now that it's calendar 2026 and not calendar 2025?
Well, certainly Republicans know it's an election year. The spotlight is on them. And I think we're starting to see some openings for cracks. But, you know, I put so many caveats there because whenever we think, you know, there could be an opening for a real Republican split, as we saw play out yesterday on the Hill with the War Powers vote.
The clerk will report. Motion to proceed to calendar number 298, Senate Joint Resolution 98, to direct the removal of United States Armed Forces from hostilities within or against Venezuela that have not been authorized by Congress.
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Chapter 3: What is the significance of the War Powers resolution in this context?
Trump and his team are really good at keeping Republicans in line through a public and private pressure campaign and getting senators and lawmakers who may be wanting to split with him, getting them back in line.
But his ability to do that is going to get increasingly more difficult as he becomes, you know, what we expect to be a lame duck president as Republicans start campaigning and have to figure out how to run on what Republicans in Congress have done so far defend their work.
But there are a lot of moderates who are looking at the calendar, looking at what's coming in 2026 and know that they have to carve out their own lane here.
Yeah, that all feels like important context. We've seen for the war powers debate that we're about to talk about some willingness for Republicans to seem like they're being their own person. But of course, that feels like it's consistently tested against the White House's own political muscle.
I mean, Trump's foreign interventionism definitely seems like the latest flashpoint in the GOP relationship with him. We did see five Republicans break with the White House and support that War Powers resolution, at least last week. Now, what changed from last week to this week?
Well, first, I just want to say in the vote last week, it was the day after the classified briefing. So even though a lot of Republicans were publicly saying, I fully support how this operation went down and that this was this does not need an intervention of Congress. Clearly, behind the scenes, there were five Republicans, senators who felt very strongly.
This is actually does require an act of Congress and congressional intervention.
They are saying, hey, we don't know what might happen in Venezuela. We don't know what might happen in Venezuela. We may want to commit trips. That is totally their prerogative to do. I just think that in that eventuality, Congress would need to then be on the hook for it.
But then between last week and last night, what we saw play out is Trump's true pressure campaign and what it means to be a Republican in Donald Trump's party.
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Chapter 4: What are the implications of Trump's threats on Greenland for U.S. foreign policy?
Yeah, what does that look like?
Immediately after the vote, Trump took to Truth Social and name-checked all five of those Republicans, said they should not be elected to Congress again.
Truth Social. Republicans should be ashamed of the senators that just voted with Democrats in attempting to take away our powers to fight and defend the United States of America. Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Rand Paul, Josh Hawley, and Todd Young should never be elected to office again.
These are members of his own party. Now, some of these Republican senators are sort of expected to... They often are in opposition to Trump, like Senators Rand Paul, Lisa Murkowski, or Susan Collins. But Senators Todd Young and Josh Hawley, that really took the president and his team by surprise.
So those were the two that they focused on in the next week to thinking that they were going to be the ones they could peel off. And, you know, the president was calling all five Republicans, and he was very upset. He was... constantly speaking poorly of them.
But what we saw here was the role that Secretary Rubio played, who's a former senator, has personal relationships with all of these individuals, and was able to sit with these senators, give them more information, and give them assurances of their red line, which both Todd Young and Josh Hawley said that their red line was they did not want boots on the ground in Venezuela.
Marco Rubio just sent a letter responsive to my requests and concerns that certifies, number one, that the United States has no ground troops currently in Venezuela or operating in Venezuela. Number two, that if the administration sought to put ground troops into Venezuela, they would abide by the War Powers Act and they would come to Congress for congressional authorization.
that was really important to them and they got the promise that that would not happen unless the administration came to congress before so republicans did get something out of it but you can ask yourself what really changed between last week and last night it really is the full court press that these republicans received from trump and his his team
Yeah. Yeah. You know, the resolution was part of the growing the question we were talking about at the beginning about Republicans red line with Trump in the House and Senate and specifically for military intervention. We had heard Rand Paul on the Hill say that he believes that the president's threats around Greenland had specifically scared some members of the Republican caucus.
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Chapter 5: How are European leaders reacting to Trump's statements on Greenland?
But now there actually has been an invasion of a foreign capital. removal of a foreign leader, I think more people are willing to understand that this is an act of war. And there is a real debate over whether or not the president can do this without the permission of Congress. What have Republican members in Congress been saying about the military use of force in Greenland?
So Greenland, we are seeing an even bigger break potentially than what we saw with Venezuela and from a cast of characters that aren't the usual critics of Trump.
Okay.
So Republican senators specifically- are sort of like, what are we doing here with Greenland? Certainly, military force, people are not on board with. The Speaker of the House, the leader of the Republican Senate, both Republicans, Mike Johnson, John Thune, have said military action in Greenland would not be a good idea.
And then even when it comes to the purchase of Greenland, you have the chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Senator Wicker, who said, came out of meeting with Danish officials and said, you know, this is not... We should not be talking about the purchase of Greenland. That's not what these officials want.
And there's a lot of Republicans, even more so privately, who I'm talking to, who are kind of hoping that Trump isn't serious about this. And so... I think Republicans are trying to not get ahead of where the president is here. They don't want to, you know, draw a firm line until they see exactly what Trump is going to do.
But there is this sort of trepidation and this sort of, I don't know, maybe even like quiet finger crossing that Trump is going to drop this. He's going to move on in that what he's saying about Greenland isn't actually going to come to fruition.
I want to ask about the general question of congressional willingness and authority here. You know, we have seen Congress kind of abdicate its role little by little over the years to the point that Donald Trump has been able to execute a more powerful executive office. Is there any kind of willingness you have for Congress to rein in that power right now?
If we think even beyond the war powers resolution, how much is the discussion of Congress's own role? How much are members talking about that?
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Chapter 6: What are the arguments against military intervention in Greenland?
And so, yes, what's happening right now is putting a real spotlight on the issue. But I think for people to really understand this, like we have to go way back. This is something that Congress has sort of been ceding power bit by bit. And it finds us in this potentially crisis that we're in now.
And I think the real question that I continue to ask in my reporting and I still don't find an answer to is, is there going to what is going to be the right line that gets people to actually say, OK, enough is enough?
Annie Greer, senior reporter at CNN. She covers Congress. Coming up, just how serious is Europe taking the president's threats on Greenland?
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The big open question is whether this set of protests that are currently underway is the end or the beginning of the end of this third phase of sort of modern governance when it comes to Iran, the end of clerical rule. I'm Jake Sullivan. And I'm John Feiner. And we're the hosts of The Long Game, a weekly national security podcast.
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Is the American dream still possible? And it shouldn't be a wake up that if you work hard, play by the rules, we're going to make the American dream accessible and affordable to you. You're not going to struggle.
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Chapter 7: How does international law affect the U.S. claim over Greenland?
You're going to strive to achieve something. For those who think that the system is rigged, breaking news, you're not paranoid. I'm Preet Bharara. And this week, former Chicago mayor and U.S. ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel joins me to break down the affordability crisis, education, why Trump supporters feel betrayed, and what a Rahm Emanuel presidential campaign might look like.
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So I'm John Henley. I'm the Guardian's Europe correspondent, and I'm based in Paris.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President Vance met yesterday with foreign ministers from Denmark and Greenland. What happened in that meeting? What was the context surrounding that meeting?
Well, the context was that the two foreign ministers from Denmark and Greenland had asked for a meeting with Marco Rubio to, as they said, kind of really look the American side in the eye. and kind of talk some sense about what the situation really was in Greenland and to put their position across.
Essentially, Donald Trump has been saying for several weeks now that the US has to have or take or gain control of Greenland, which is, you know, a huge Arctic island. It's really strategically located. It has a lot of kind of very valuable minerals on it. If we don't take Greenland, Russia or China will. And I'm not letting that happen.
And Trump has been saying that he absolutely has to have it for kind of national security reasons.
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Chapter 8: What future steps are expected regarding U.S. relations with Greenland?
We need that because if you take a look outside of Greenland right now, there are Russian destroyers, there are Chinese destroyers and bigger, there are Russian submarines all over the place.
And there's a lot of problems. with those statements from the Greenlandic and Danish points of view.
It is not a true narrative that we have, you know, Chinese warships all around the place. According to our intelligence, we haven't had a Chinese warship in Greenland for a decade or so.
And the second problem, obviously, is that Greenland is a largely self-governing territory of the Kingdom of Denmark. The Kingdom of Denmark is a sovereign country. It's a member of NATO. It's a member of the European Union. It's arguably the most kind of loyal ally to the U.S.,
And we look at ourselves as US closest allies. You know, in Afghanistan, we had exactly as many casualties as US.
And they don't want to be owned or bought or taken over or invaded by the United States.
So in this meeting, what did Denmark and Greenland have to say? Well, you know, there's such seemingly a fundamental difference of opinion. What were they actually communicating to the Americans?
Well, they were putting those points across, really. And they did say afterwards, Lars Slokke Rasmussen, the Danish foreign minister, did say after the meeting, you know, that we didn't succeed in convincing the Americans. Mm-hmm.
It's not that I'm now saying everything is solved. It's not solved. We didn't manage to change the American position.
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