Foreign skepticism about U.S. reliability under Trump could undermine the success of the State Department’s inaugural Critical Minerals Ministerial meeting this week.

On the Monday, January 26, 2026, episode of The Excerpt podcast: Trump says he’s secured a win on Greenland, even as key questions remain unanswered. USA TODAY White House Correspondent Francesca Chambers breaks down the stakes and the gaps.

US, Danish and Greenlandic officials met Wednesday to discuss a new framework deal over Greenland, an attempt to satisfy President Donald Trump’s desire to see a greater American presence on the Arctic island that stops short of ceding it to the US.

Greenland's presence in the news in recent months has been nearly as large as it appears on a map. Despite housing a freezing climate and a sparse population, it's gotten worldwide attention recently as the country becomes further entrenched in American politics.

Hundreds demonstrated in Copenhagen Saturday after President Trump's NATO remarks sparked outrage among Danish military veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

On January 21, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Trump met with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte and announced a "framework of a future deal" on Greenland and the broader Arctic region. He immediately withdrew the tariff threat scheduled for February 1, calling the talks "very productive."

President's Trump's designs on acquiring the world's largest island "one way or the other" have stirred feelings of betrayal among Danes and Greenlanders. Mo Rocca gives us a history lesson about an island that is 80 percent covered in ice.

"I hope my music and music films will ease some of the unwarranted stress and threats you are experiencing from our unpopular and hopefully temporary government," Young said.

Patches of brownish grey take over Greenland's landscape, increasing ice melt threats.

Danish veterans are furious at the White House's rhetoric, which disregards Greenland's right to self-determination, a territory of NATO ally Denmark.