Category: Donald Trump
‘A piece of ice for world protection’: Trump rules out military intervention in Greenland
Europeans breathed a sigh of relief after President Donald Trump ruled out using military intervention to acquire Greenland.
Trump took another victory lap Wednesday during his speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, recapping all the successes of the first year of his second term. During these remarks, Trump clarified that he would not send boots on the ground in the “piece of ice” known as Greenland.
‘I don’t have to use force.’
“We want a piece of ice for world protection, and they won’t give it,” Trump said. “We’ve never asked for anything else.”
“They have a choice,” Trump added. “You can say yes, and we will be very appreciative, or you can say no, and we will remember.”
RELATED: Trump cites Nobel Peace Prize snub in latest push for Greenland takeover
Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Trump followed his ominous statement with a reassuring one, remarking for the first time publicly that the United States will not forcefully take 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.
RELATED: ‘Make America Go Away’: Protests erupt in Greenland after Trump threatens tariffs on Europe
Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg via Getty Images
“That’s probably the biggest statement I made, because people thought I would use force. I don’t have to use force. I don’t want to use force.”
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Trump blasts mass migration from ‘failed’ foreign countries in fiery rebuke: ‘Minnesota reminds us’
President Donald Trump delivered a scathing rebuke of mass migration, pointing to Minnesota as a cautionary tale.
During his Wednesday speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Trump warned of the dangers and destabilization caused by mass migration. As in many European countries, whose leaders were in attendance, migrants have flooded the United States by the millions, many of them taking advantage of social programs, committing crimes, and failing to assimilate.
‘We have to defend that culture.’
Trump pointed to Minnesota as a prime example of the failures of mass migration, noting the immense fraud and cultural disruption brought about by Somalian immigrants.
“The situation in Minnesota reminds us that the West cannot mass-import foreign cultures which have failed to ever build a successful society of their own,” Trump said.
RELATED: Trump administration halts visas for 75 nations whose people gobble up American welfare
Michael Siluk/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
“We’re taking people from Somalia, and Somalia … it’s not a nation,” Trump said. “Got no government. Got no police. Got no military. Got no nothing.”
Trump went on to criticize Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, a Somalian immigrant.
“She comes from a country that’s not a country,” Trump said. “And she’s telling us how to run America. Not going to get away with it much longer.”
Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg via Getty Images
“The explosion of prosperity, in conclusion, and progress that built the West did not come from our tax codes. It ultimately came from our very special culture,” Trump said. “This is the precious inheritance that America and Europe have in common. We share it. We share it, but we have to keep it strong.”
“We have to defend that culture and rediscover the spirit that lifted the West from the depths of the Dark Ages to the pinnacle of human achievement,” Trump said.
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How the 30-year mortgage helped create a permanent housing bubble
You won’t hear many people object to President Trump’s executive order to ban corporate purchases of residential homes. The idea sounds like common sense. But it targets a minor symptom while leaving the real disease untouched — and in some respects, it risks making that disease worse.
Institutional home-buying already peaked during the COVID-era bubble and has receded since then. In most markets, corporate ownership represents a small share of total inventory. Even at its height, it never explained why housing costs exploded for everyone else. High prices created the opportunity for institutional buyers, not the other way around.
The goal should not be cheaper debt. It should be cheaper homes.
Government policy inflated the housing market. Institutional buyers simply responded.
During COVID, the Federal Reserve pushed interest rates toward zero. Mortgage rates fell below 3%. At the same time, the Fed bought roughly $2.7 trillion in mortgage-backed securities, and HUD expanded “affordable homeownership” programs that widened the pool of subsidized buyers. Those policies produced predictable results.
When the government offers 2.5% interest for 30 years — often paired with minimal down payments backed by the FHA — buyers flood the market. Sellers respond by raising prices. The bubble becomes a feature, not a bug.
Institutional buyers entered that environment because it looked like easy money. Higher home prices also pushed rents up, so developers built more homes for long-term rental. Both trends flowed from the same source: a government-shaped market that made housing unaffordable, then subsidized the unaffordability.
Trump now seems focused on the symptom — corporate buyers — while ignoring the machinery that inflated the market in the first place.
He has spent months fighting Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell to bring rates back down toward zero. Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve still holds about $2.1 trillion in mortgage-backed securities. Trump has also announced a plan for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to purchase another $200 billion in MBS. The stated goal is to lower mortgage rates.
But the goal should not be cheaper debt. It should be cheaper homes.
mphillips007 via iStock/Getty Images
Artificially lowering rates props up prices and slows correction. Prices in many markets have begun to soften. That correction should continue. Policies designed to suppress rates will keep prices elevated and risk inflating the next bubble.
That brings us back to corporate home-buying. Even at the COVID peak, institutional buyers — defined as entities owning at least 100 single-family homes — owned about 3.1% of the housing stock. That number has since fallen to around 1%. Investors see the market turning, and they have started backing away.
So Trump’s corporate-purchase ban arrives late, targets a relatively small share of the market, and risks becoming cosmetic cover for policies that keep the bubble inflated.
If Trump wants to drive prices down and permanently realign housing with median incomes, he has to reverse the policies that inflated the bubble. That means attacking the structure, not the headline.
Get government out of the mortgage market. Trump’s next Federal Reserve chair must commit to unwinding the Fed’s mortgage-backed securities portfolio. That $2.1 trillion cushion keeps mortgage rates lower than the market would otherwise set. Those artificially low rates inflate home prices.
End universal “homeownership for everyone” policy. The federal government keeps subsidizing buyers who are not ready to buy. Those programs inject cash into housing demand that would not exist in a real market. The goal should align prices with income, not chase a utopian dream of universal ownership. After decades of subsidies, deductions, and federal credit support, the home ownership rate still sits around the mid-60% range.
Stop chasing near-zero interest rates. A 30-year loan at 2% sounds appealing until you realize what it does to prices. Cheap money bids up homes across the board. Buyers pay the price forever even as politicians brag about the “deal.” Trump should let the market set rates. Recent rate cuts have not restored normal home buying either. Sales remain weak because prices remain too high.
End the 30-year fixed mortgage. Instead of floating longer loans — 50 years? Madness! — the country should move in the opposite direction. Before the New Deal era, short-term mortgages, often three to seven years, dominated the market. Federal policy transformed that structure.
Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the National Housing Act of 1934, establishing the Federal Housing Authority. The FHA insured long-term, fully amortizing mortgages with fixed rates, low down payments, and standardized payment schedules. That system moved the market away from short-term balloon loans and laid the foundation for longer terms.
RELATED: America tried to save the planet and forgot to save itself
jhorrocks via iStock/Getty Images
Congress eventually authorized the 30-year mortgage in 1954. VA loans under the GI Bill and the expansion of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac later built a secondary market that made long-term fixed-rate loans attractive to lenders.
Government insurance, guarantees, and liquidity support made 30-year fixed mortgages feasible, which is why they represent 80%-90% of U.S. mortgages today. Without those interventions, lenders would not carry that risk.
The larger point remains simple: Sellers can’t charge prices buyers can’t pay. Prices explode only when government subsidies and government-backed long-term debt expand what buyers can “afford” on paper.
Unwind the subsidies. Unwind the guarantees. Unwind the cheap-money machinery. Let incomes, not federal policy, set the ceiling.
Housing should function like other consumer markets, not be engineered by Washington. Prices should reflect what people earn.
That’s the fix. Everything else treats symptoms and pretends to solve the problem.
Air Force One Makes U-Turn Over Atlantic, Returns To Andrews AFB
The crew reportedly detected a “minor electrical issue”
‘I Have Very Firm Instructions’: Trump Makes Clear What Happens To Iran If He’s Assassinated
‘The whole country is going to get blown up’
One Year In: Trump’s Show of Force
As many of you know, Martin Luther King Jr. Day is a federal holiday, and many people have it off…
Taxing Lawnmowers, Gym Passes, And DoorDash Proves Dems Actually Hate ‘Affordability’
Affordability carried the day — until Democrats actually got into office. Within weeks of Election Day, Virginia Democrats have made clear that “affordability” was never more than a campaign slogan.
Trump-backed Republican launches bid to challenge GOP Senate incumbent
Republican Rep. Julia Letlow of Louisiana officially launched her campaign to oust Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) just days after securing an endorsement from President Donald Trump.
Trump came out in support of Letlow on Saturday, calling her a “Big Star” who would embrace the MAGA agenda. Although Republican operatives like the National Republican Senatorial Committee customarily endorse the incumbent, Cassidy’s controversial votes may have cost him the support of the president.
‘I am confident I will win.’
“I’m honored to have President Trump’s endorsement and trust,” Letlow said in a post on X. “My mission is clear: to ensure the nation our children inherit is safer and stronger.”
“This United States Senate seat belongs to the people of Louisiana, because we deserve conservative leadership that will not waver.”
RELATED: ‘Federal dollars should not pay for abortion, period’: Sen. Cassidy doubles down on Hyde, abortion pill restrictions
Shawn Thew/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images
While the race is shaping up to be a contested Republican primary, the NRSC is letting the chips fall where they may.
The Senate Republicans’ campaign arm is holding off from spending money on Cassidy, whom the NRSC endorsed, because “Louisiana will be won by a Republican regardless” and because the group doesn’t want to oppose the president, according to a source familiar with the NRSC’s decision-making.
RELATED: GOP senator warns Republicans will lose future elections if party continues to ‘idolize’ Trump
Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images
Notably, Cassidy was one of the few Republicans who voted to go forward with Trump’s second impeachment trial in 2021, later voting to convict the president. Despite this, Cassidy remains confident about his race.
“I’m proudly running for re-election as a principled conservative who gets things done for the people of Louisiana,” Cassidy said after Trump endorsed Letlow. “If Congresswoman Letlow decides to run I am confident I will win.”
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WSJ piece claims Trump isn’t happy with Pam Bondi — divisive propaganda or based?
On January 12, the Wall Street Journal published an exclusive report claiming that President Trump is less than thrilled with Attorney General Pam Bondi.
According to the article, he has complained privately to aides repeatedly in recent weeks, describing Bondi as “weak” and “ineffective” at enforcing his agenda, specifically when it comes to the Epstein files, prosecuting people like former FBI Director James Comey and New York AG Letitia James, and pursuing the shadow figures who orchestrated Biden’s phony 2020 presidential victory.
This is music to many conservatives’ ears. From their perspective, MAGA has waited a year in vain for the heads of D.C.’s slimiest swamp creatures to roll, as was a campaign promise. To discover that Trump himself is perhaps also displeased with the DOJ’s lack of prosecutions is encouraging.
However the report is coming from a mainstream outlet, so a healthy degree of skepticism is necessary, says BlazeTV host Liz Wheeler.
Regardless she feels that the contents of the Wall Street Journal’s report are “very realistic” and “very plausible.”
“It seems like a summary of what you and I have experienced throughout the year,” she says.
According to the article, President Trump told the Wall Street Journal, “Pam is doing an excellent job. She’s been my friend for many years. Tremendous progress is being made against radical left lunatics who are good at only one thing: cheating in elections and the crimes they commit.”
“All right, so how do we analyze this article?” asks Liz. “Is this true? Is President Trump finally growing tired of Attorney General Pam Bondi?”
While she acknowledges that “it is true that Pam Bondi has been loyal to President Trump for many years, and that makes the situation perhaps personally a little more awkward,” the reality is President Trump has to decide “whether Pam Bondi is an effective attorney general, not whether she’s a loyal friend.”
And the facts don’t lie.
As early as February 2025, it was clear to Liz that Bondi “does not tell the truth to the American people” after she gave Liz and other conservative influencers those “infamous white Epstein binders” that contained no new information on the convicted child sex trafficker.
Bondi’s ineffectiveness has “become more obvious as the summer passed and the fall passed and the new year passed,” says Liz.
“Tulsi Gabbard handed Attorney General Pam Bondi on a silver platter a case against John Brennan and the Obama cronies that fabricated the intelligence community assessment to claim that Russia helped President Trump defeat Hillary Clinton … and what accountability have they faced?” she asks.
“Trump’s administration controls the Department of Justice. We should be seeing indictment after indictment after indictment. And yet what have we seen? We’ve seen nothing.”
To hear more of Liz’s commentary, watch the video above.
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