January 12, 2026

The abduction of President Maduro and his being brought, handcuffed, to New York shocked the world. Yet President Trump’s press conference about Operation Absolute Resolve, American military might, and plans for Venezuelan oil was an even greater shock. During the past week, the US President has continued to stun the world, particularly Washington’s NATO allies.

On January 7, asked in a wide-ranging interview with The New York Times if there were any limits on his global powers, Mr. Trump said: “Yeah, there is one thing. My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.”[i]

“I don’t need international law,” he added. “I’m not looking to hurt people.”

In response to a question about how long he intends to run Venezuela, he said:

“Only time will tell. Like three months. six months, a year, longer?” “I would say much longer than that.” “Much longer, and, and —” “We have to rebuild. You have to rebuild the country, and we will rebuild it in a very profitable way. We’re going to be using oil, and we’re going to be taking oil. We’re getting oil prices down, and we’re going to be giving money to Venezuela, which they desperately need. I would love to go, yeah. I think at some point, it will be safe.”

Trump also discussed his designs on Greenland, emphasizing that ownership is very important. Asked why he needed to possess the territory, he said: “Because that’s what I feel is psychologically needed for success. I think that ownership gives you a thing that you can’t do, whether you’re talking about a lease or a treaty. Ownership gives you things and elements that you can’t get from just signing a document.”

When asked whether obtaining Greenland or preserving NATO was his higher priority, Trump declined to answer directly but acknowledged that “it may be a choice.”

Last Friday, “Countries have to have ownership and you defend ownership, you don’t defend leases. And we’ll have to defend Greenland,” Trump told reporters in response to a question from the BBC. We will do it “the easy way” or “the hard way”, he added.[ii]

And yesterday he warned Cuba to “make a deal, before it is too late”. No doubt, President Trump enjoys being the central figure of global attention.

Beyond Trump, in widely reported remarks, White House deputy chief of staff for policy and homeland security, Stephen Miller said the US was operating in the real world that “is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power… these are the iron laws of the world since the beginning of time”.

The second inauguration of President Trump took place on January 20, 2025. Next week will mark the end of his first year in office. Throughout the past year, transatlantic relations experienced hardly any ups but many downs, if not crises. For the most part, European leaders tried to accommodate the President and his Team of Three (Vance, Rubio, and Hegseth).

Now, at last, admitting that President Trump is unlikely to change his governing style and approach to international issues, they have started to react.

On January 6, a day before Trump’s extensive New York Times interview, President Macron, Chancellor Merz, and prime ministers Meloni, Tusk, Sánchez, Starmer, and Frederiksen made a joint statement on Greenland.[iii]

The statement said:

“Security in the Arctic must therefore be achieved collectively, in conjunction with NATO allies including the United States, by upholding the principles of the UN Charter, including sovereignty, territorial integrity and the inviolability of borders. These are universal principles, and we will not stop defending them.

“The United States is an essential partner in this endeavour, as a NATO ally and through the defence agreement between the Kingdom of Denmark and the United States of 1951.

“Greenland belongs to its people. It is for Denmark and Greenland, and them only, to decide on matters concerning Denmark and Greenland.”

In his Christmas address, on December 25, 2025, German President Steinmeier reflected on the holiday season’s message of hope and solidarity.

However, Steinmeier, addressing a symposium in Berlin to mark his 70th birthday, struck a different note, saying that global democracy was at risk. The former German foreign minister said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was a watershed, but subsequent US behavior marked a second “epochal rupture”.

There has been a “breakdown of values by our most important partner, the US, which helped build this world order”, said the President, whose role is largely ceremonial. “It is about preventing the world from turning into a robber’s den, where the most unscrupulous take whatever they want.”[iv]

Steinmeier said the erosion of the world order had already reached an advanced stage. Smaller, weaker states risked becoming “completely defenseless”, and entire regions could be treated “as the property of a few great powers”.

The next day, France ‘rejects the new colonialism and new imperialism’, said President Macron.

“The US is an established power, but one that is gradually turning away from some of its allies and breaking free from the international rules that it was until recently promoting,” Macron told France’s diplomatic corps at the Élysée Palace on Thursday.

“Multilateral institutions are functioning less and less effectively,” he said. “We are living in a world of great powers, with a real temptation to divide up the world.”

He said France “rejects the new colonialism and new imperialism – but also vassalage and defeatism. What we have achieved for France and in Europe is a step in the right direction. Greater strategic autonomy, less dependence on the US and China.”[v]

And, on Friday, Italian Prime Minister Meloni called on Europe to appoint a special envoy to talk to Russia, as efforts continue to end the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine. Meloni said that she agreed with French President Emmanuel Macron, who last month called for new dialogue with the Kremlin. Russian President Vladimir Putin “expressed readiness to engage in dialogue” with Macron, Moscow said in response.[vi]

The “Agreement Between the United States and the Kingdom of Denmark” of April 27, 1951, does not give Washington a free hand in Greenland. Signed only two years after the founding of NATO, it understandably stresses the collective Alliance dimension of the defense measures to be taken.

The preamble of the Agreement says:

“The Government of the United States of America and the Government of the Kingdom of Denmark, being parties to the North Atlantic Treaty signed at Washington on April 4, 1949 having regard to their responsibilities thereunder for the defense of the North Atlantic Treaty area, desiring to contribute to such defense and thereby to their own defense in accordance with the principles of self-help and mutual aid, and having been requested by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to negotiate arrangements under which armed forces of the parties to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization may make use of facilities in Greenland in defense of Greenland and the rest of the North Atlantic Treaty area, have entered into an Agreement for the benefit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization…”

With the discussion on Greenland, the wars in Ukraine and Gaza have once again become secondary issues on the global agenda.

By all indications, 2026 is likely to be a critical year not only for transatlantic relations but also for Europe-Russia relations. I believe that, at present, the Ukrainian leadership and European leaders regret having ignored or rejected the Kremlin’s appeals for dialogue in earlier years, particularly during the Biden presidency. Unfortunately for them, their long-term interests mattered little to Biden, whose priority was further weakening Russia.

Russia annexed Crimea on February 20, 2014. Eight years passed before Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine. Had there been a serious dialogue, perhaps history could have been written differently, and Ukrainians would not have to endure sub-zero temperatures without heat, electricity, or water in an increasingly cruel war.

A final word: The incredible loss of life in the Iranian protests is a tragedy of the worst kind. Yet, for the regime, this matters little since all they care about is remaining in power regardless of the cost. After nearly five decades in power, this is where they have brought a country with many opportunities to offer its people a better life and a better place in the world.

[i] https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/08/us/politics/trump-interview-power-morality.html

[ii] https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c78vj5n7jg3o

[iii] https://www.elysee.fr/en/emmanuel-macron/2026/01/06/joint-statement-on-greenland

[iv] https://www.bundespraesident.de/SharedDocs/Berichte/EN/Frank-Walter-Steinmeier/2026/260107-symposium.html

[v] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/08/french-german-presidents-macron-steinmeier-condemn-us-foreign-policy-trump

[vi] https://www.politico.eu/article/italy-giorgia-meloni-calls-for-europe-to-talk-to-russia/