Trump Sounds Incoherent In Rambling Press Conference

What this episode is about

During a recent press conference, President Trump made headlines by discussing the potential for a military takeover of Greenland, presenting his rationale that historical claims and current geopolitical concerns regarding Russian and Chinese military presence justify such action. The comments sparked controversy and raised questions about their implications for U.S. foreign policy and relations with European allies, particularly Denmark.

Key takeaways

• Trump's Greenland obsession: a misguided historical rewrite fueled by inflated maps and territorial fantasies.
• Threatening NATO unity over Greenland shows how far Trump's ego extends beyond customary diplomatic decorum.
• Offering cash for love in Greenland? Next up, romance tips from the man who said, 'I love Denmark.'
• Taking Greenland by force? A potential NATO fracture proving that some dreams could lead to geopolitical nightmares.
• While eyes on Venezuela's oil heat up, Trump's fixation on Greenland feels like a chilly distraction.

Who speaks in this episode?

• Dan (Guest) · 12 min speaking
• Donald Trump (Guest) · 6 min speaking

What is discussed, and when

1. 0:00 – 3:00: Donald Trump
2. 6:00 – 9:00: Cook Unity

Notable quotes from "Trump Sounds Incoherent In Rambling Press Conference"

• On Friday, President Trump sat down with a bunch of big oil executives to decide how to carve up Venezuela's oil resources going forward. And after the ritualistic ass kissing and speeches,.

  about Donald Trump · at 0:00

• I have been using Cook Unity forever, for years, long before they ever sponsored this podcast. It is fantastic.

  about Cook Unity · at 6:05

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

• Donald Trump — Person · 2 mentions · first at 0:00

Companies & orgs

• Cook Unity — Company · 1 mention · first at 6:03

Concepts & topics

• NATO — Concept · 2 mentions

Full transcript with timestamps

0:00 On Friday, President Trump sat down with a bunch of uh big oil executives to decide how to carve up Venezuela's oil resources going forward. And after the ritualistic ass kissing and speeches, President Trump took questions from some reporters, which is when it got really weird. So, this first clip, Dan, is President Trump talking about the United States taking Greenland by force if necessary. Let's watch.

0:23 I would I would like to make a deal, you know, the easy way, but if we don't do it the easy way, we're going to do it the hard way. And I'm a me and by the way I'm a fan of Denmark too, I have to tell you. And I'm and you know they've been very nice to me. Uh I'm a big fan. But you know the fact that they had a boat land there 500 years ago doesn't mean that they own the land. Uh I'm sure we had lots of boats go there also. But we need that because if you take a look outside of Greenland right now, there are Russian destroyers.

0:55 There are Chinese destroyers and bigger. There are Russian submarines all over the place. We're not gonna have Russia or China occupy Greenland, and that's what they're going to do if we don't. So, we're going to be doing something with Greenland, either the nice way or the more difficult way.

1:12 There's just so much to unpack there, Dan. Where do we begin? Let's start with this. I bet there's a lot of right-wingers who call themselves heritage Americans who would be surprised to learn that a boat landing on some territory 500 years ago doesn't mean it's yours.

1:24 Yeah, it seems. But that by that definition, we'd have to really revisit a lot of American history. Probably maybe in a good way.

1:30 Yeah. Just Mayflower eraser here from Donald Trump. Absolutely crazy. Um we should just point out so Trump is threatening a military invasion of Greenland there. Um it's just worth noting that uh the prime minister of Denmark, a bunch of our top European allies have said in statements this week that if Trump took Greenland by force through annexation or some other means, that would completely unravel NATO. like that those are the stakes of what we're talking about. And the New York Times asked Trump about those stakes like two days ago in the in the Oval Office during their interview and he acknowledged like yeah it might be a choice and he just doesn't seem to care.

2:06 Can you help me understand just not like the idiocy of Trump like what would be the strategic upside to owning Greenland that is not available to us right now with it being owned by a close ally?

2:21 Like I I I sincerely don't know. Well, I mean, so under this treaty from the early 1950s, the United States has the option of putting more US troops on Greenland soil. We there's a bunch of bases there that we used to have troops at that are now closed. We could put more US service members there. If Trump was worried about the threat from Russia and China as the Arctic melts, I guess you could argue that um there could be minerals, there could be oil or gas, etc. But my understanding and look it's a very fil one is that um actually getting at those resources under you know tons and tons of ice is quite difficult. what it said my takeaway from the way Trump described it is he was like a sense of owner like he said owning it just gives you a sense of satisfaction like it's clear to me that what this is about for him is he thinks territorial expansion is the way to leave his mark on history and Greenland

3:14 is like three times the size of Texas so he thinks it would be a pretty big mark on history like that is my I think takeaway

3:20 and so I'm glad we're having this conversation maybe not for the listeners and the viewers but for me because I I got a lot of questions for you about this Um, the nice way, as we understand it, based on a reporter from earlier this week, is that he would give up to $100,000 to every adult in Greenland to try to buy their love. That would be, according to the math, I did about $5 billion of taxpayer dollars going directly to Greenland, which I'm sure would be very popular.

3:46 The forest method would be we just land some troops there and say it's plant a flag and say it's ours.

3:50 Yeah. Just essentially annex it because there's no one no one's gonna fight us back, right? Like we're not going to be at war with Denmark over this right?

3:57 No. I mean, well, the crazy thing is, I mean, Denmark's a NATO ally. So, what happens? The United States invades a NATO ally. NATO

4:04 does NATO have to fight. How does how does article 5 work? We have to fight ourselves, right? It sort of doesn't work. And that's why they're saying that this just sort of unravels NATO as we know it.

4:12 I mean, this is bananas. This is truly truly bananas for like the Venezuela thing is nuts. We've talked about the Venezuel Maduro is a bad guy. Obviously, what they're the way they're doing this is all ass backwards, but the Greenland thing is just truly fantastical. Like, it makes no sense.

4:34 Someone mentioned to him it to him a couple years ago and he is seized on it and he's obsessed with it. The one uh the one theory that I've seen that I really liked in is um the there's something called the Mercer projection which is a way of drawing the earth on a flat map by projecting the globe onto a cylinder and then you unroll it, right? And and what's useful about that is it kind of like keeps the angles accurate and it keeps the kind of the lines of navigation constant. But the drawback is that areas near the poles are distorted.

5:04 So Greenland on an old school map looks massive. It looks like it's like the size of the continent of Africa. So, there's some people who think that Greenland's Trump thinks Greenland is really that big because he's a a old man with a pickled brain and you know all he's drawing from is the old maps.

5:18 They is a real crytography fan that he is. Maybe that's why I like that theory too. Um I would just want to point out um his shoulder pads in his suit looked absurd in that clip. He looked like the um talking head stopped making sense video. Did you notice that? Yeah, he looked the whole his posture is actually nothing dissimilar from mine at this exact moment, but his posture was uh he was just very schlumpy and seemed pretty tired here.

5:40 He also was apparently wearing a a lapel pin of himself. He was asked about this by Fox News and he said it's a happy Trump pin.

5:49 Okay, cool. Like you to imagine if Barack Obama wore a pin of himself at a press conference how that would go on.

5:55 The the amount of Republicans who are going to be wearing happy Trump pins uh around Congress is going to be quite embarrassing. Lindsey Graham just found his his new uh his new love. Pod Save America is brought to you by Cook Unity. I have been using Cook Unity forever, for years, long before they ever sponsored this podcast. It is fantastic. Uh most of my meals are from Cook Unity. They deliver chef design meals that balance real flavor, nutrition, and convenience with no cooking or planning required. They also let you choose what works for you with collections like protein forward, better for sleep, mood boosting, and fiber maxing. Plus, it's awesome knowing their roster of all-star chefs include Food Network alums, James Beard Award winners, and acclaimed restaurant tours who balance bold flavors and nutrition and small batch meals delivered fresh, not frozen.

6:35 Taste, comfort, and craftsmanship in every bite from the award-winning chefs behind Cookunity. Go to cookunity.com/crooked or use code crooked to get 50% off your first order. That's 50% off your first order at cookunity.com/crooked or use the code crooked. Uh, okay. Trump was also asked about whether the FBI should be sharing information about their investigation into the ICE shooting of a 37-year-old mother of three in Minneapolis named Renee Good earlier this week. Here is what he said about that.

7:02 The state officials there have said that the FBI is not sharing evidence with them. Typically, they would conduct a joint investigation as you know. Do you believe that the FBI should be sharing evidence with state officials in Minnesota?

7:12 Well, normally I would, but they're crooked officials. I mean, Minneapolis and Minnesota, what a beautiful place, but it's being destroyed. It's got an incompetent governor, fool. I mean, he's a stupid person. It's a very corrupt state. I feel that I won Minnesota. I think I won it all three times. It nobody's won it for since Richard Nixon won it many, many years ago. I won it all three times in my opinion. And it's a corrupt state, a corrupt voting state. And the Republicans ought to get smart and demand on voter ID. They ought to demand maybe same day voting and all of the other things that you have to have a safe election. But I won Minnesota three times and I didn't get credit for it.

7:56 Okay. Again, a lot to unpack there. So, let's let's start with this investigation point and then get to the electoral claim. Um, I I guess Dan, it's like in some sense maybe it's like, okay, it's useful for him to just to tell us on the front end that this is going to be a rigged investigation that he's not going to work with anyone in Minnesota state law enforcement because they just don't want there to be any chance of this ICE officer getting prosecuted for what was, you know, to me looked like a murder. But I don't What did you make of that?

8:23 Yeah, I mean it is what Trump said is just basically a reiteration of basically the point that JD Vance made yesterday. JD Vance has already declared this this ICE officer's innocence. Has declared that anyone who thinks that the off the ICE officer is guilty of anything or this shooting was inappropriate to hate law enforcement, be anti-American, be siding with domestic terrorists, whatever else. And JD Vance believes contrary to all law essentially that the ICE officer has full immunity for what they do. And so I guess it is somewhat helpful for them just to say the part out loud that we're not waiting around for there to be some sort of typical investigation here where the feds would be involved. Now, that does not mean that the state officials and the county officials in Minnesota cannot investigate, but it will be harder because you they have the full force of the federal government

9:12 protecting this officer from any sort of accountability just not even just from being like facing criminal punishment, but just answering questions about it for evidence to actually get the gun, right? They're going to they would need a they're probably going to have to go to court and the court's going to have to weigh this and it'll be, you know, uh an interesting case to say the least.

9:30 Yeah. I mean, literally like right before we started recording, um, I saw an article in the Daily Mail that where the Daily Mail reporters saw a bunch of federal agents in the empty home of this ICE shooter, like getting out his belongings, basically clearing out his house. And there's some question of like why they seem to be evacuating this man. Uh, his name is Jonathan Ross, the ICE officer who who shot Renee Good. Why they're surviving.

9:54 I imagine that he is probably um furious for his safety. Um, for sure. I think there's a question of whether he also fears prosecution from local authorities.

10:04 Yeah, of course. Of course. And and are the people who should if there's an actual investigation there that there would be potential evidence there like maybe the clothes he was wearing or something like that that his buddies should not be packing for him somewhat. The law enforcement who aren't the investigators should be looking at that first.

10:21 Yeah. Uh, okay. So Dan, on this electoral point, I mean, it's it's just fascinating to watch the election lies kind of inexurably grow. Uh, now he says he won Minnesota three times. I guess like in 2028, do you think we're going to be saying Trump's going to be saying he won like Vermont and Massachusetts?

10:35 Yeah. I I don't think there's a there's never been a state that Trump's admitted he lost.

10:40 He's bl he claims he would have won California if there wasn't all, you know, mail balloting and all the other stuff. I mean, Minnesota was I looked at this was relatively close to 2016. It's about a point and a half. There was obviously no evidence that Trump actually won it. Biden won it by a little north of seven and then Kla Harris won it by four and a half. The idea that Trump actually won these states is he is it's truly delusional. And when you watch you listen to that answer, it's like it's a serious question asked about a serious matter and he immediately just starts vomiting up stuff that leads right into this delusional fantasy that he won Minnesota. Like if your uncle talked like that at the that thinks at the Christmas, you know, the holiday dinner table, your family would have a meeting about like what to do about their healthcare, right? It's like it is very it is it is it comes off as quite

11:27 unwell. Yeah. I mean, yeah, he's asked a question about an investigation into the shooting of an American citizen and obviously immediately makes it about himself. It's just like the most classic Trump thing. Um

11:36 not surprising for a man wearing a pin with his own face on it. Well said. Um, uh, Fox News's Peter Dussy also asked the president if he had seen any evidence to back up Vice President JD Vance's claim that Renee Good was part of some left-wing radical network. Here's his answer.

11:52 The vice president yesterday suggested that Renee Good, who was killed by this ICE officer, was part of a broadle left-wing network. What has your team told you about this broadle left-wing network? Who is in charge of it? Who's part of it? What What's it called? Well, I haven't seen the vice president's statement, but he's generally very accurate. I hate to say it. Uh, look, uh, I watched that yesterday, and there are a lot of lot of different forms to it, but there was a woman screaming shame, shame, shame, shame. She was a agitator, probably a paid agitator, but in my opinion, she was an agitator, a very high level agitator. So professional, she wouldn't stop screaming. I said, "This isn't a normal situation. This is a professional troublemaker because you heard it and I had it. Now I I will say this, the news sort of turned her down, turned her off because you're trying to watch. She was

12:48 so loud and so crazy and just not normal. When somebody sees something like that, they don't go screaming and screaming and the same words.

13:00 I don't really know what he's talking about, Danny. I was just going to ask you that.

13:03 Yeah. So, like I've watched all these videos. There are certainly people like after the shooting saying things like shame to these ICE officers. Renee Good wasn't saying any of those things. She was like she literally said like that's okay man. I don't hate you. Like those we literally have seen her last words.

13:16 Yeah. It's I mean he is operating on with very very little information. He doesn't really know what he's talking about. I mean theoretically in a normal world like even put aside whether the the basic shred of human de decency you that it would take to actually care about someone dying. He doesn't even take any part of this seriously where as the you know as the person in charge of the justice department tells us this all the time to actually try to accurately describe what's happening. It doesn't show up in any of the video. So, it's just like not clear what piece of like right-wing content made it into his field of vision over the last 24 hours that made him

14:01 say that. Like I don't think he's watched the videos. I think that's pretty clear. We know the New York Times showed it for him and he was sort of right horrible situation. But yeah, I mean we again we know that

14:12 Renee Good, some of her last words that we heard were on tape and she says, "That's fine, dude. I'm not mad at you." And she says it in a totally nice, normal known to Jonathan Ross, the SCE officer, who then shoots her three times in the head and calls her a uh as the car like drives away because she's dead and slumped down and her foot's on the accelerator. Um, it's also like Dan, his answer to the question about Vance though is basically like, uh, no, Peter, I've not seen any evidence of what JD Van said, nor have I looked at it for it because as you and I both know, this is entirely fabricated.

14:43 Next question. Yeah, exactly. And it's also it is notable that he basically throws it on JD Vance. Like does he know what's not true? Does he, you know, who knows? Like he says things that he just he just told us seconds earlier that he won Minnesota three times. But he really does sometimes leave JD Vance on an island with the things JD Vance said, which is JD Vance said it. I don't know. He's right a lot, but talk to him about it. Like he doesn't even he doesn't want to own anything JD Vance might have done or said that may be inaccurate, maybe wrong, maybe unpopular. He wants to do those things on his own.

15:15 That's right. He's like, "Yeah, that the vice president tends to be right, but if he's wrong in this case, uh, it's not my fault." Basically, the message. Yeah. But like, look, big picture, this is incredibly chilling stuff. You know, I mean, like a federal agent kills a citizen and then the US government at the highest levels justify it by baselessly claiming after the fact that she was a terrorist or as JD Van said, a deranged like radical leftist. Like that is quite literally what you'd expect and you see from Vladimir Putin and other authoritarians.

15:41 Yeah. I mean, at the same time in the same press conference where we're threatening Denmark with invasion.

15:46 Yes. Yes. After invading uh Venezuela. Uh okay. Final clip from us. Uh this was just kind of funny. Den,

15:52 it's already been written off. It's been written. All right. Thank you very You'll make it back one way or the other. You're all going to do very well. I think really very well. Marco just gave me a note. Go back to Chevron. They want to discuss something. Go ahead. I'm going back to Chevron. Mark. Thank you, Marco. Uh, this note says, "Do not read this note aloud, sir. Sir, please do not read this." What a idiot.

16:16 You know how I always accuse Democrats of reading the stage directions out loud? Well, here's a Republican doing it.

16:21 Yep. There's a Republican doing it. It was like President Ron Burgundy over here.

16:24 Oh god. I know, Dan. This has been a real tough week. This has been I can't believe it's been less than a week since we uh invaded Venezuela. This has been a tough one. And this is one of those weeks where you feel like it it is off the rails in a more profound way than um look look in December like Trump's polling was down. He was struggling. He was losing like legislative losses at you know in Congress and things. And now it's like I don't know the the authoritarianism is is shining through. Um his blood lust for like using the US military to do whatever he wants is shining through. Like I don't know. It's pretty freaky. We're at a really paradoxical moment here, which is that Trump has never been weaker and he's never been more dangerous. Like just this week as as this all was happening, as we were invading Venezuela, we're threatening Greenland, as the United States federal government is marshalling

17:09 themselves to smear a woman who was shot and killed in public. Trump lost a bunch of votes in Congress. His poll numbers suck. The here's a guy who stares who stages a daring delta force rate of Venezuela and no one cares. His numbers don't go up. It is like people are not on board with what is happening here. He can still do these things, but it comes with political consequences. The fact that the a bunch of Republicans broke with Trump to pass the uh a three-year extension of the Obamacare tax credits, notable. The fact that a bunch of Republicans broke with Trump to pass a war powers resolution on Venezuela to make it harder for him to do have another strike there. The fact that a bunch of Republicans voted to override his veto of his petty ve uh cancellation of infrastructure projects because he's mad at people for voting for the Epstein files like that that like he is he is weak and like he is

18:04 lashing out at that weakness and that that is very very dangerous. Yeah, it's very dangerous and it's again it's historically like the kind of thing you see from authoritarians, right? Putin Putin invaded, you know, Crimea and then, you know, the full-scale invasion of Ukraine at moments when uh the uh Russian economy was particularly bad and his polling was down and he maybe felt a little bit politically vulnerable. We also saw some numbers out on Friday that showed the United States only gained like 580,000 jobs last year.

18:31 Compare that to 2024 when I think the Biden economy gained 2 million jobs. I mean, things are just like objectively not going well if his primary task or promise he made to the American people was to create jobs, uh, get costs down, and just like make the economy better for people. He's failing.

18:47 Yeah, absolutely. Uh, all right. Well, you know who's not failing? Us at creating a progressive media empire.

18:52 Oh, what a what a segue that was. Oh, I don't know if I can get through this one. Look, we are trying to uh build a progressive media company, okay? Okay, when you subscribe to POS Save America here on YouTube, you help us because lots of people search for political news on YouTube and what they find is right-wing crap from like TPUSA and the Daily Wire and, you know, Ben Shapiro and all that And when you subscribe to POS of America, you help us surface good factual news from a progressive standpoint in the YouTube algorithm and it helps and it's free.

19:19 So, please do it. Also, if you subscribe to Pate America, it'll help protect Greenland.

19:23 There we go. Protect Greenland. Subscribe to POS America.

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "Trump Sounds Incoherent In Rambling Press Conference"?

Dan (Guest), Donald Trump (Guest).

What is "Trump Sounds Incoherent In Rambling Press Conference" about?

During a recent press conference, President Trump made headlines by discussing the potential for a military takeover of Greenland, presenting his rationale that historical claims and current geopolitical concerns regarding Russian and Chinese military presence justify such action. The comments sparked controversy and raised questions about their implications for U.S. foreign policy and relations…

What is mentioned in this Pod Save America episode?

3 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Donald Trump, NATO, Cook Unity. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "Trump Sounds Incoherent In Rambling Press Conference"?

The episode runs 20 min; the transcript is about 4,081 words in 57 timestamped sections.

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