Tuesday on the RealClearPolitics podcast, Andrew Walworth, Carl Cannon, and RCP White House reporter Phil Wegmann discuss the president stealing the show at the annual World Economic Forum before even delivering his speech tomorrow by demanding Greenland, and California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s warning to European leaders about being “devoured” by Donald Trump. After that, the group considers the escalating tension surrounding Trump’s deportation campaign and whether the DOJ will charge a group of anti-ICE protesters who stormed a church in Minneapolis on Sunday. Plus, Elon Musk’s massive donation to a Kentucky Senate candidate tests the limits of money’s influence in politics, and a review of what Trump accomplished in his first year back in office. You can listen to the show live each day at 11:00 a.m. on SiriusXM’s Megyn Kelly Channel 111 and then on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, and here on our website. *** The program opens with world leaders grappling with President Trump’s demand to buy Greenland ahead of his speech tomorrow at the World Economic Forum and reactions from French President Emmanuel Macron and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. Is the world still taking the president literally when they should be taking him seriously? “We just heard from the Treasury Secretary: Give us what we want, and nobody gets hurt!” Wegmann said about Bessent urging Europeans to calm down and hand over Greenland. “Bessent knows he’s gambling, and he’s waiting on the turn – that’s the Supreme Court saying whether or not the president actually has this tariff authority.” “This has gone way beyond this guy’s off message for the midterms,” Cannon said. “It’s making me wonder about his emotional health.” “This Greenland thing doesn’t seem to matter to anybody outside of Donald Trump and a few of his acolytes, and it seems to be a waste of time and a diversion at best, and at worst, disruptive to world peace,” Walworth concluded. *** At minute 16 the group reacts to California Gov. Gavin Newsom, also at Davos today, warning Europe in almost apocalyptic terms not to trust Trump. Will this help European leaders in negotiations with Trump or Newsom in 2028? “Well, the days of leaving partisanship behind when you leave America are long gone,” Cannon said. “I understand what Newsom is saying, but in a way he’s extrapolating domestic politics to foreign soil, and if foreign leaders talk about Trump the way he did, or I did five minutes ago, it might backfire, because that is not necessarily their place.” “Newsom is not just criticizing Trump’s foreign policy; he is asking and instructing our allies to resist him. That is really one step beyond. He’s giving advice not to cooperate with the United States,” Walworth added. “Aligning yourself with European elites is a bold strategy when you’re gearing up for a populist election in a few years,” Wegmann commented. “The problem is it’s an emperor-wears-no-clothes situation, but Trump isn’t the one full of bluster. The Europeans are.” *** After that, at minute 21, the group discusses the DOJ considering charging former CNN personality Don Lemon and a group of protesters who disrupted a church service in Minneapolis because they believed the pastor was working with ICE immigration enforcement, and a New York Times op-ed today by Lydia Polgreen titled: In Minneapolis, I Glimpsed a Civil War. “It’s been a low-grade sort of non-shooting but occasional shooting civil war for a couple of years now. When the history of this time is written, I don’t know what people will point to as the precipitating act. There’s nothing as direct as the shelling of Fort Sumter, but, you know, there have been plots against ICE,” Cannon said. “Trump is provoking it, but marching into a church and disrupting the service…?” “The White House is not worried about this. Part of the reason why they’re in Minneapolis right now is the spectacle,” Wegmann added. “They are happy to ratchet up the pressure because it serves as a sort of deterrent. They are not going to be able to deport the 10 to 15 million illegal immigrants who came here under the Biden administration on their own. Instead, they want self-deportations, and I think that is part of Stephen Miller’s strategy.” *** At minute 35, the group considers Elon Musk’s $ 10 million donation to PACs supporting Nate Morris in the Kentucky Republican Senate primary. Can this much money boost a fresh candidate polling third to a Senate nomination, or is Musk testing the limits of money in politics? “The character of the Republican Party is up for grabs. Mitch McConnell is the last of the old guard to really retire,” Wegmann explained. “Remember all of that consternation among Republicans when Elon Musk said that he was going to launch a third party, the America Party? Well, that’s over, and the money machine is back on.” “I don’t think we can say that just because Elon Musk is sending all of this money, that means Nate Morris is going to have a coronation in the Republican primary,” he said. “Phil says you can’t stuff money into the ballot box – so that’s going to be the Phil Wegmann caveat to the enduring wisdom of Jesse Unruh, the former speaker of the assembly in California, who famously said money is the mother’s milk of politics,” Cannon said. “Democrats used to scream and yell about big money in politics, but then they discovered they have just as many – actually more – billionaires on their side.” *** Don’t miss a single episode of the RealClearPolitics weeknight radio show – subscribe at Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
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