Trump rules out using military force to acquire Greenland in Davos speech
US President Donald Trump, during the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, on Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2026. The annual Davos gathering of political leaders, top executives and celebrities runs from Jan. 19-23. (Photographer: Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
(DAVOS, Switzerland) — President Donald Trump, speaking Wednesday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland amid heightened tensions with Europe, notably ruled out using military force to acquire Greenland.
“We probably won’t get anything unless I decide to use excessive strength and force where we would be, frankly, unstoppable. But I won’t do that,” Trump said.
“I don’t have to use force. I don’t want to use force. I won’t use force,” Trump said.
Still, Trump said no other country can defend Greenland but the United States and said he is seeking “immediate negotiations to once again discuss the acquisition of Greenland by the United States.”
“I have tremendous respect for both the people of Greenland and the people of Denmark, tremendous respect. But every NATO ally has an obligation to be able to defend their own territory, and the fact is, no nation or group of nations is in any position to be able to secure Greenland other than the United States. We’re a great power,” Trump said.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi delivers remarks on an arrest connected to the 2012 U.S. Embassy attack in Benghazi, at the Department of Justice on February 6, 2026 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Attorney General Pam Bondi is facing a grilling Wednesday as she testifies before the House Judiciary Committee amid multiple controversies.
She will likely be questioned about her handling of the Epstein files, the Justice Department’s targeting of President Donald Trump’s political foes, and the FBI raid seizing 2020 ballots in Georgia amid the president’s baseless claims of election fraud.
Both Democratic and Republican lawmakers have been sharply critical of the Department’s incomplete release of the Epstein files and extensive DOJ redactions after some viewed unredacted files at the agency beginning Monday.
Tensions are expected to be strong as a group of Epstein survivors are seated behind Bondi. The group spoke out about the federal investigation into the convicted sex offender earlier Wednesday.
She could also be grilled about her efforts to revive cases against former FBI Director James Comey and New York’s Democratic Attorney General Tish James after indictments against them were tossed.
Bondi is also set to face questions about the raid to capture Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro — something administration officials have said was a law enforcement operation. Given that, questions have been raised about why the attorney general was not present to discuss the matter at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago news conference announcing the raid.
The attorney general has testified on Capitol Hill only a handful of times.
In her most recent testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, she appeared to use prepared lines of attack against Democratic lawmakers who demanded she answer their tough questions.
.S. President Donald Trump (L) speaks as newly sworn in U.S. Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin and his wife Christie Mullin look on during a ceremony in the Oval Office at the White House on March 24, 2026 in Washington, DC. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Strikes continued across the Middle East on Tuesday amid uncertainty over the state of talks between the U.S. and Iran, after President Donald Trump touted progress on negotiations while Tehran denied any dialogue.
Just days after he insisted there was no leadership left to talk to in Iran, Trump on Monday announced the U.S. and Iran held discussions over the weekend and as a result he was postponing major attacks he’d threatened on Tehran’s energy infrastructure.
“We have had very, very strong talks,” Trump told reporters. “We’ll see where they lead. But we have … major points of agreement.”
Steve Witkoff, White House special envoy, and Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, led the talks for the U.S. side, according to Trump. Trump did not identify who the U.S. was negotiating with in Iran, but said it is not the new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei.
Trump said a meeting would take place “soon.”
Iran, on the other hand, publicly denied any talks have taken place. Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran’s speaker of Parliament, said Trump’s claims were an attempt to influence markets suffering from Iran’s stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz.
The Trump administration is not confirming if and when in-person talks will take place between U.S. and Iranian officials in the coming days.
“These are sensitive diplomatic discussions, and the United States will not negotiate through the press. This is a fluid situation, and speculation about meetings should not be deemed as final until they are formally announced by the White House,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement provided to ABC News.
Pakistan has positioned itself as a mediator between the U.S. and Iran.
A Pakistani official familiar with the negotiations told ABC News that there are “several proposals” floating around regarding the next steps for talks and said an in-person meeting in Islamabad is on the table.
Trump on Tuesday shared to his social media platform a post from Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who wrote on X: “Pakistan welcomes and fully supports ongoing efforts to pursue dialogue to end the WAR in the Middle East, in the interest of peace and stability in region and beyond.”
“Subject to concurrence by US and Iran, Pakistan stands ready and honoured to be the host to facilitate meaningful and conclusive talks for a comprehensive settlement of the ongoing conflict,” Sharif’s post read.
The Pakistani official said Turkey and Egypt are also helping to facilitate the talks between the U.S. and Iran.
The official said the talks would likely take place within the next five days in accordance with Trump’s social media post — suggesting military strikes on Iranian power plants were “paused” for the next five days as Tehran and Washington engage in diplomatic negotiations. The official cautioned nothing is final as of yet.
A spokesperson for the Embassy of Pakistan in Washington declined to comment. The Egypt and Turkish embassies have not responded to requests for comment.
The Turkish foreign minister said last Thursday that his country was talking to both the U.S. and Iran to understand where the two nations stand.
The State Department referred to the White House when asked if Witkoff, Kushner and Vice President JD Vance were expected to travel to Islamabad later this week to meet with Iranian officials, as Reuters has reported. Vance’s office has not responded to a request for comment.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday said he had spoken with Trump, and said Trump believes there “is an opportunity to leverage the tremendous achievements we have attained with the U.S. military to realize the war’s objectives in an agreement — an agreement that will safeguard our vital interests.”
In the meantime, Netanyahu said Israel will “continue to strike both in Iran and in Lebanon. We are crushing the missile program and the nuclear program, and continue to inflict severe blows on Hezbollah.”
President Trump earlier Monday said that Israel would be “very happy” when asked if he believed Israel would abide by a negotiated peace deal.
Meanwhile, thousands more U.S. Marines and several Navy ships are heading to the Middle East, and the Pentagon is seeking $200 billion in supplemental funding.
Voters cast their ballots in the New Hampshire presidential primary election at The Barn at Bull Meadow, January 23, 2024, in Concord, New Hampshire. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — Friday marks a key procedural deadline for how Democrats will figure out which states will hold the first presidential nominating contests of 2028, amid broader debates within the party over diversity and voter representation, and which states will show which candidates are viable for the long haul.
The Democratic National Committee set a Friday afternoon deadline for state parties to apply to have their 2028 presidential nominating contests be held in the period before Super Tuesday, the first Tuesday in March during a presidential calendar year where the most primaries are held.
The order of the primaries and caucuses matters because the early contests help indicate which candidates have momentum and are striking a chord with voters, and often narrow the candidate field ahead of Super Tuesday.
The debate about the order is also about diversity and voter representation in the Democratic Party. Some Democrats have argued that states with larger Black and minority populations should be prioritized, to reflect the diversity of the country, while others say the party should prioritize traditional “early states,” such as New Hampshire, to spur turnout and buzz, even though their populations may be less diverse.
Traditionally, Iowa has held first-in-the nation caucuses and New Hampshire has first-in-the-nation primaries. But in 2024, a reshuffled DNC primary calendar pushed the states from the first two slots on the party’s official calendar and officially put South Carolina first.
While Iowa Democrats found a compromise with the DNC by switching their in-person caucus to an entirely mail-in voting process, New Hampshire’s primaries were kept in January, causing conflict between the state and national party.
Iowa Democratic Party Chair Rita Hart, in a statement to ABC News, said that the party is applying to hold its caucuses before Super Tuesday, and said Democrats need to keep Iowa toward the front of the line in order to stay competitive with Republicans.
“No matter what the Rules and Bylaws Committee decides, Republican presidential candidates will be in Iowa,” Hart wrote. “It was a mistake for the DNC to cut us out of the calendar, letting Republicans’ attacks go unanswered in Iowa while millions of dollars in advertising, organizing and the worldwide media flooded our state.”
Some state party leaders have said their states being early in the calendar will help candidates show if they can stick it out throughout 2028.
New Hampshire Democratic Party Chair Raymond Buckley said the case his party is making to the DNC is that New Hampshire is a prime state for 2028 candidates to build up support and to show their viability. He said its small size allows for easy campaigning in a purple state, “which is exactly what you need in the November general election.”
New Hampshire also has a state law requiring it to hold the nation’s first presidential primaries, which is what led in large part to the disarray in 2024 between the state party and the DNC. But Buckley said that it’s not a factor right now.
“It’s not about the tradition, it’s not about the law; it’s really about our involvement, and we just think that we have an unmatched record of being able to give the opportunity for candidates to talk to voters one-on-one,” Buckley said.
Buckley said New Hampshire’s population of union members, as well as the large percentage of students of color in the public school systems of the state’s two largest cities make it a great state for candidates to test the waters.
But the South Carolina Democratic Party said it wants to stay first in the calendar.
Party Executive Director Jay Parmley told ABC News that the state is making its case to the DNC to remain in the early window because it’s compact and allows unknown candidates to compete. Also, Parmley said the state does not have a major population center, so candidates need to fan out across it.
Regarding the debates surrounding diverse primary states, Parmley pointed to how the state has a “diverse electorate,” and highlighted its Black community. Around 1 in 4 registered voters in South Carolina are Black, according to data from the South Carolina Election Commission.
“Our Black electorate — it legitimizes and rewards the role of Black voters and as the backbone and soul, if you will, of the Democratic Party.”
Nevada’s Democratic Party also confirmed it’s submitting a bid to go early, arguing that galvanizing the state’s minority and working-class populations is critical for the Democrats.
In a draft of their application, the state party wrote, “The Democratic Party is facing a critical moment where we must be strategic in our efforts to earn back Latino support, craft an economic message that resonates across the country, begin the work to reach working-class voters, and turn out diverse communities. We cannot afford to have overwhelmingly college-educated, white, or less competitive states kick off the process of selecting our party’s nominee.”
Michigan is also submitting a bid to be among the early states similar to how it was in 2024, the state’s party confirmed to ABC News — arguing in part that Michigan is the most important and diverse of the battleground states.
“For Democrats to have the strongest presidential candidate, the early nominating states should closely mirror Democratic voters nationwide and be representative of America,” Michigan Democratic Party Chair Curtis Hertel said in a statement to ABC News.
Illinois’, North Carolina’s and Georgia’s state Democratic parties also confirmed to ABC News that they are submitting bids. As Georgia’s state’s presidential primaries are usually held after Super Tuesday, they’d have to work with the Republican-dominated state legislature to move up the date.
