C-SPAN’s Washington Journal Open Phones explores the U.S. House’s Venezuela vote, Trump’s Arctic-NATO deal—delaying February 1 tariffs—led by JD Vance and Marco Rubio, and NATO’s clarification on Greenland’s autonomy. Callers like Darrell (Columbus, GA) attack Trump’s $1B Putin-inclusive "Board of Peace," while Vincent (Gaithersburg, MD) argues leasing bases could still benefit U.S. security despite Denmark’s sovereignty stance. Kevin (Staten Island) frames Arctic bases as key to countering Russia and China, citing Iran’s NY attacks; Alexander (Brooklyn) mocks Trump’s strategy, calling it reckless. The episode underscores deep divides over Arctic policy, NATO relations, and geopolitical trust. [Automatically generated summary]
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The House is expected to gavel in at 9 a.m. and we'll take you there.
Let's start with President Trump's post on True Social.
He posted this yesterday at 2.27 p.m. and he said this.
Based upon a very productive meeting that I have had with the Secretary General of NATO, Mark Ruda, we have formed the framework of a future deal with respect to Greenland and, in fact, the entire Arctic region.
This solution, if consummated, will be a great one for the United States of America and all NATO nations.
Based upon this understanding, I will not be imposing the tariffs that were scheduled to go into effect on February 1st.
Additional discussions are being held concerning the Golden Dome as it pertains to Greenland.
Further information will be made available as discussions progress.
Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and various others, as needed, will be responsible for the negotiations.
This is the New York Times with this headline.
Trump says he has a framework for a Greenland deal as NATO mulls U.S. sovereignty over bases.
It says that President Trump said Wednesday that he had reached the framework of a deal with NATO over Greenland's future hours after alliance officials separately discussed the possibility of the U.S. obtaining sovereignty over land from military bases.
Mr. Trump's announcement was among a series of moves on Wednesday that appeared to draw the United States back from the possibility of military and economic conflict with his allies over Greenland, which is an autonomous territory of Denmark.
It says that he withdrew the threat of additional tariffs from European allies that had resisted his insistence on owning Greenland and said he would not use force to assert American ownership.
And here is President Trump yesterday in Davos taking questions about this topic from reporters.
We all know that Taco stands for Trump always kicking out.
This thing with Greenland, this deal has already been in existence for over 75 years now.
So there's not going to be no new deal.
He just did all this yesterday to try to save faith because he is embarrassed.
I'm glad that Europe, the Europeans, stood up against him.
And I'm also concerned about this thing with this board of peace with Vladimir Putin being on the board.
And Vladimir Putin has already paid his $1 billion.
So this was never about no national security.
So if you're going to bring Vladimir Putin in, and he's on your board, along with Victor Orban and all these other crazies, it's never about no national security.
America better wake up.
And also, one quick thing.
I'm glad Jack Smith thing is coming on today.
Thank y'all, C-SPAN, for that.
And Republicans have also told me to stop calling Trump a pedophile.
So I will stop.
My wife told me to stop doing it too.
So instead of calling him a pedophile, I just call him a child toucher.
And very quickly, in response to that call, since you let that call a talk call Trump, a President Trump, a pedophile, in sibling words, I'd like to remind people, and you folks, you remind people too, that you news folks, President Trump turned Epstein in.
President Trump kicked Epstein out of his Mar-a-Lago home, and many of the women said Trump never touched them.
But let me stick to the topic here.
You know, nothing will be worth nothing to us if Trump doesn't, if we don't get Greenland.
It's strategic.
You can forget about your deaths, your oaths, and all the other things, because we won't have a country.
China and Russia will blow us away.
That is unmilitary.
That is strategic.
We need Greenland.
And Trump has no intention of putting boots down on the ground.
Let me ask you, since you're former military, can we achieve our national security interests without actually owning Greenland by having that base, by maybe having another base if we need it?
What are your thoughts on that?
unidentified
Absolutely.
But does it make sense to lease, defend leasing?
There's a lot of, the Democrats could work all around the fact that it's leased, and they will.
Democrats hate America.
You Democrats hate us.
But yes, it makes absolute sense to make it a part of the United States.
And this is what the Danish Prime Minister said in a statement.
He said this.
NATO is fully aware of the Kingdom of Denmark's position.
We can negotiate about everything politically: security, investments, the economy, but we cannot negotiate about our sovereignty.
I have been informed that this has not been the case either.
And of course, only Denmark and Greenland themselves can make decisions on matters concerning Denmark and Greenland.
The Kingdom of Denmark continues to seek a constructive dialogue with allies on how we can strengthen security in the Arctic, including the United States' Golden Dome, provided that this takes place with respect for our territorial integrity.
That was reported in Politico.
Kevin, Staten Island, New York, Republican.
Hi, Kevin.
unidentified
Hi, good morning.
Nice to have you.
Thank you for having me on.
A lot of people are anti-Trump that are calling in anyway.
But realistically, when you look at strategic pinpointing, Russia, at one point in time of the year, can walk right across the Bering Sea because it's so low.
But the idea is Iceland and Greenland, all of these areas are strategic points in maintaining security of the United States.
I mean, if you look at Putin, Putin is former KGB.
He's like a rabid dog at times.
China is their ally.
I mean, they're both communist nations.
So realistically, the bridges that Obama and Biden had burned and sold out our country, Trump and Vance are trying to advance us back to superiority and protect our nation.
And if you look at what's going on abroad with the Islamic Republic of Iran, which are basically their allies also.
They're attacking places of worship now in New York.
So, I mean, we're dealing with a very serious critical point, and Trump is trying to do the best he can at what he has to work with.
But he has a lot of opposition because there's a lot of iniquities that the Democrats have committed, and they're trying to blow smoke.