President Donald Trump made his intentions to acquire Greenland even more clear on Friday, arguing that the territory is important to fighting back against Russian and Chinese aggression. Trump said the United States would take control of Greenland the “easy way” — by making a deal — or the “hard way,” which he didn’t elaborate on. The president made the comments on Greenland while taking questions from reporters at the White House during a roundtable with oil executives that focused on rejuvenating Venezuela’s oil industry. “Right now, we are going to do something on Greenland, whether they like it or not, because if we don’t do it, Russia or China will take over Greenland,” Trump said. “And we’re not going to have Russia or china as a neighbor.” “I would like to make a deal the easy way, but if we don’t do it the easy way, we’re going to do it the hard way,” he added. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said earlier this week that the U.S. military “is always an option at the commander-in-chief’s disposal” when discussing the national security importance of Greenland. Trump has suggested at times throughout his second term that the United States should take over Greenland, but following his recent move on Venezuela, the president has made Greenland a major focus of his foreign policy plans. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said earlier this week that the threat of Trump using military force on Greenland is important to his negotiating strategy. Rubio added that Trump prefers to purchase Greenland from Denmark, which oversees the autonomous territory and is a NATO ally. After Trump revived his push for Greenland, the territory’s leaders, along with Denmark, pushed back and requested a meeting with Rubio. “The strong request for a meeting is related to the U.S.’s claims about our country,” said Greenland Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeld, according to ABC News. “Unfortunately, our country’s request for a meeting for a long time has not been successful, although this has been repeatedly requested by our country.” Denmark Foreign Minister Lars Rasmussen also requested to meet with Rubio, and the U.S. secretary of State plans to meet with Denmark officials next week, ABC News reported. European nations and Canada have expressed concern after Trump revived talk about taking over Greenland. In a joint statement from France, Britain, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, and Denmark, European leaders said that “Greenland belongs to its people. It is for Denmark and Greenland, and them only, to decide on matters concerning Denmark and Greenland.” Canada and the Netherlands also endorsed the statement, Reuters reported. Trump told reporters on Sunday that the United States needs “Greenland from the standpoint of national security and the European Union needs us to have it and they know that.” Trump’s adviser, Stephen Miller, then said on Monday, “Nobody’s going to fight the United States militarily over the future of Greenland.” Republican lawmakers, including House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), have also pushed back on the idea of the U.S. military being used to acquire Greenland. Johnson said, “I don’t think it’s appropriate,” while Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) said that “even a modestly intelligent ninth grader knows that to invade Greenland would be weapons-grade stupid.” “Now, President Trump is not weapons-grade stupid, nor is Marco Rubio. They do not plan to invade Greenland,” Kennedy added.

The situation in Minnesota continues to roil the waters. We are looking at the very real possibility of a standoff between the state government led by Governor Tim Walz — the failed vice presidential candidate who just had to step away from a third-term run in Minnesota because of the allegations of fraud — and the federal government. On Thursday, Walz — who is in a world of hurt politically right now because of the Somali fraud scandal — compared this moment to the Civil War. Apparently, it is now the Civil War if you send ICE to enforce arrest warrants against criminals in this country. Walz stated: When things looked really bleak it was Minnesota’s first that held that line for the nation on that July 3rd, 1863. And I think now we may be in that moment; that the nation is looking to us to hold the line on democracy, to hold the line on decency, to hold the line on accountability, and more than that, to rise up as neighbors and simply say, we can look out for one another. We can have differences. But we proved to the world going on 250 years that our democracy could hold. It feels to me like we’re at one of those inflection points. I’ve said many, many times that when you have high-level politicians talking this way, it is truly bad for the country. When you say we are at the point where we are going to go to war with one another and a civil war is about to break out, and it’s the end of the country, these statements turn into self-perpetuating prophecies. That’s because the more people believe they can’t get along with their neighbors, that there is no basis for a common Americanism, the more they are likely to see each other as enemies and not political opponents. Walz also said: I’d ask everyone to pause for a moment of silence to remember Renee Good, also to remember all that’s good and right about this nation. And, I’m going to ask folks if they can, I’d ask employers to give their people some space. I’d ask each and everyone to find a way to contribute in your community. Might be shoveling your neighbor’s walk. It might be being at a food bank. It might be pausing to talk to someone you haven’t talked to before, but to show the goodness, to rise up to make sure that we’re being very, very clear about this, that we expect our constitutional rights to be respected, that law enforcement is local, that we expect accountability of our elected leaders and that we are not going to go quietly and we’re not going to give up on those things that matter so much to us. And chief amongst those is human dignity, respect, rule of law. All of the things that we know make this country great.  That’s bizarre, Orwellian language. Walz moves very quickly from “we should take this moment of silence, to go work at a food bank or talk to someone you’ve never talked to before,” to “we need to respect rule of law” while holding a moment of silence for a person who, at the very least, was involved in obstruction of the performance of law. When he says that law enforcement must be local, what he means is that federal law enforcement shouldn’t do its job. And when he says that we should “rise up,” when he says that we have an obligation to stand up for our constitutional rights — you do not have a constitutional right to be in this country illegally, nor do you have a constitutional right to thwart federal law enforcement’s pursuit of criminal illegal immigrants and their deportation. You do not have the right to do any of those things. All of this is part and parcel, of course, of Tim Walz’s broader agenda, which is to label ICE as the Gestapo, which is what he did last year. You wonder why people are out there confronting ICE? When you put people in a moral position where they feel they must confront federal law enforcement and do it over and over and over again, the basic rule is: the more people are confronting law enforcement, the more there will be bad situations that emerge from those confrontations. This is just the way the world works. Listening to Tim Walz talk about morality is astonishing, considering that just last year he said that China — a true authoritarian state — might be the global moral authority. He said:  Who holds the moral authority? Who holds the ability to do that, because we are not seen as a neutral actor and we maybe never were. I don’t want to tell anybody that; I think there’s a lot of people say you always lean one way in this, but I think there was at least an attempt to be somewhat of the arbitrator in this. We saw President Carter do it with Begin and Sadat. We’ve had certain wins along the way that were actually mutually beneficial both ways. Now I ask who that is. And I mean consistently over and over again, we’re going to have to face the reality. It might be the Chinese. Unbelievable. That person is the person who’s now the moral authority talking about authoritarianism? Remember, he presided over the riots in 2020 that shut down a city in his state because he was unable to handle basic law enforcement functions in his state. The reason that Tim Walz is going so hard here is because he recently had to step away from running for a third-term because of the fraud in his state — a fraud scandal largely emanating from the Somali community, which, of course, is the community at issue in these immigration raids from ICE. For Walz to preach about morality and the rule of law, he has to ignore his own history. And he’s doing just that.

The following is an adapted transcript excerpt from The Michael Knowles Show. * * * When it comes to the unrest in Minneapolis, the more you allow people to get away with this kind of behavior — direct threats, incitement to violence, blocking traffic, blocking law enforcement, even driving their cars into law enforcement — the more of it you’re going to get. People will become accustomed to the behavior and to the idea that it is acceptable. Of course, now other bougie white ladies who have been doing the same thing are concluding from this incident that, well, maybe they shouldn’t. This Charlotte woman is now terrified to obstruct law enforcement: This woman says shes also been driving around looking to interfere with ICE operations in Charlotte and now shes horrified. Maybe she should stop, then. pic.twitter.com/I9Umys6VDZ — Cassandra MacDonald (@CassandraRules) January 7, 2026 Credit: @CassandraRules/X.com I am shocked because only a few weeks ago, I was driving around this town that I live in, in Charlotte, doing very similar things, looking for ICE agents, trying to prevent them from kidnapping people off the street. And there was a lot of other people out there doing that on a daily basis, as is our right to drive around the streets of our city. It’s frightening right now. The last part is really all that matters. “It’s frightening right now.” You can tell how confused this woman is. She might be sincere, but she’s so confused. She says the woman was trying to drive away. She wasn’t actually driving away. We now have all the video footage from all the angles. Even CNN is running it. The woman was clearly trying to obstruct federal law enforcement. And guess what? You don’t have a right to obstruct federal law enforcement, or local law enforcement, for that matter. You don’t have that right. You may think you have that right because Democrat politicians have lied to you and have encouraged this behavior and have allowed the anarchy to fester and are now largely responsible for that woman being killed.  So let’s correct the record right now: You don’t have that right. WATCH: The Michael Knowles Show Vice President JD Vance said all of this beautifully. He gave one of the best performances I’ve certainly ever seen from a vice president — one of the best performances in this administration. He came out with his typical lucidity and moral clarity. Here is his take on Minneapolis: JD VANCE: “There’s a part of me that feels very sad for this woman, not just because she lost her life, but because she’s a victim of left wing ideology. What young mother shows up and decides to throw their car in front of ICE officers who are enforcing legitimate law? You have… pic.twitter.com/XnRWWn1lfb — Autism Capital ? (@AutismCapital) January 8, 2026 Credit: @AustismCapital/X.com The one final point I’ll make about this is, look, there’s a part of me that feels very, very sad for this woman, not just because she lost her life, but because I think she is a victim of left wing ideology. What young mother shows up and decides they’re going to throw their car in front of Ice officers who are enforcing legitimate law. You’ve got to be a little brainwashed to get to that point… Spot on. This is exactly the right tone. We’re not saying, “That evil domestic terrorist woman, yeah we love that she’s dead!” We know, it’s sad. It’s sad that she was perhaps so brainwashed that she thought the ICE officers really were the Gestapo. Where did she get that from? She got it from cable news. She probably thought that illegal aliens have a right to be in this country. They don’t. But she has heard that from all the Democrat bullhorns. She’s heard that from anyone who says that illegal aliens are “undocumented Americans.” “Well, if they’re Americans, they have a right to be here.” They’re not Americans. That’s the point. She probably thought these people were totally innocent. They’re not.  She probably thought they’re not face-tattooed gangsters, they’re not defrauding the government. They’re all just little “abuelas” trying to peacefully make a pie in the kitchen when the Gestapo suddenly shows up. No — she was brainwashed. And she betrayed her family. She betrayed her daughter. She may not have meant to — I don’t doubt that — but she did. And why? To go out there, not just for a stupid cause, but for such an unjust cause? And leave your kid without a mother? I feel sorry for this woman that her mind would be so scrambled to get to that point. But it doesn’t change the fact that it was all wrong. In fact, that should impel you to want to set the record straight, which is what JD does when it comes to the news media. .@VP delivers a much needed torching the Fake News: “Everybody who has been repeating the LIE that this is some innocent woman who was out for a drive in Minneapolis when a law enforcement shot at her — you should be ashamed of yourselves.” ? pic.twitter.com/rArUNnzPxi — Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) January 8, 2026 Credit: @RapidResponse47/X.com The way that the media, by and large, has reported this story has been an absolute disgrace, and it puts our law enforcement officers at risk every single day. Everybody who’s been repeating the lie that this is some innocent woman who was out for a drive in Minneapolis when a law enforcement officer shot at her — you should be ashamed of yourself. And that is precisely the point. If you lie generally, you should be ashamed of yourself because you’re committing a mortal sin. If you lie about an event of public interest, you should especially be ashamed of yourself because it causes political scandal. But if you lie about this kind of issue, you should be ashamed of yourself because you are setting the stage for naive and ignorant people to put themselves in harm’s way for your lie. And that’s what happened. The liberal media — it is not hyperbole to say — bear a considerable amount of responsibility for that woman’s death.

With the southern border being effectively shut down under the Trump administration and likely to become a pivotal factor for the Republicans’ campaign messaging in 2026, Senate Majority Leader John Thune appeared on Friday alongside a handful of incumbent GOP leaders at the border wall in McAllen, Texas. “On the border today with colleagues, including [Cornyn] and future colleagues [Whatley] and [Rogers],” Thune posted to X. “Happy to report that thanks to new leadership in Washington and strong policies like the Working Families Tax Cuts, the southern border is safe and secure.” Immigration and the border were considered a top issue for voters in the 2024 election, according to a Navigator Research report, and will likely remain so in 2026. Thune brought along North Carolina Republican Senate candidate Michael Whatley, and Mike Rogers, who’s running in Michigan. Rogers and Whatley are both considered frontrunners for the Republican nomination in their states. Currently, the Cook Political Report rates both races a “toss-up.” “This is the front line for law enforcement right here in the country,” Rogers said Friday. “This is the group that will stop the one rapist who rape a young lady jogging on a trail and leaving her body in a cruel and inhumane way on the trail. That stops here, on this border.” Sen. John Cornyn was also in attendance as he faces a tight primary challenge against Attorney General Ken Paxton and Rep. Wesley Hunt. The upcoming Republican primaries could play a larger role in how the border clean-up is touted compared to the general elections. The Friday visit led to a scuffle between Cornyn’s campaign and Hunt on Friday on X. Hunt posted, “Word on the street is John Cornyn will be visiting the border on Friday for a photo-op. What’s he going to do, look at the wall he opposed?” The Texas senator’s campaign responded with a lengthy post saying that Cornyn “led the effort to secure $13B+ for federal reimbursement for state border efforts,” “voted for HUNDREDS of billions of dollars for the border wall over years” and “led many border delegations and been to the border dozens and dozens of times.” Whoever wins the primary will face off against either Rep. Jasmine Crockett or state Rep. James Talarico in the border state contest. As ICE continues its deportation efforts nationwide, apprehensions at the border have come to a near-total halt, with only 221 apprehensions on Thursday, according to data reported by Fox News. The numbers draw a sharp contrast from the height of the Biden-era border crisis, where there were sometimes daily apprehensions in the thousands. In Congress, there were major pieces of border and immigration-related legislation that ended up being signed by President Donald Trump last year, including the Laken Riley Act and the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act.” The OBBA included billions in border security funding in addition to $13.5 billion for reimbursements to go toward states that had to pay for border crisis mitigation.

Fernando Mendoza has made a name for himself. You can call the Indiana quarterback “Heisman Winner,” “Player of the Year,” or by the nearly dozen other awards the junior has won from his record-setting season. Mendoza is using his name in this new Name, Image, and Likeness era to make millions, but he’s also using it to fight multiple sclerosis, a disease his mom Elsa has battled for 18 years. With the help of local restaurants in Bloomington, Indiana, Mendoza is raising money for MS through the National MS Society. The quarterback teamed up with BuffaLouie’s to make the “Mendoza Bros. Burger” and Gable’s Bagels for the “Mendoza Bros. Cubano.” Proceeds from both of those items go directly to the National MS Society. “My mom means the world to me,” Mendoza said on his fundraiser site. “She’s the most caring and positive person I know, and I’ll keep doing everything I can to support her and others living with MS.” Mendoza’s goal is to raise $150,000 for the foundation. He has received $144,443 so far through his campaign. In a letter penned to The Players’ Tribune, Elsa said her son has helped her not feel embarrassed about the degenerative disease. “When you have to carry me up the stairs, you’ve always kept that same spark in your eye,” Elsa wrote. “No matter what kind of state I’ve been in, or day I’ve been having, you’ve never once looked away. You’ve never once treated me like I’m embarrassing, or deficient, or anything other than someone you love and are standing by.” In the emotional letter, Elsa opened up about raising Mendoza as a young mom in Boston. She said her firstborn always felt like her closest buddy. Together, the two navigated the Miami native’s first Boston winter. All these years later, Mendoza is still helping his mom, just in different ways. “Even as my condition has gotten worse, and as our lives continue to change around that fact. You manage to make me feel like I’m still every part of myself,” Elsa said. “Like I’m still that same person you’ve been teammates with since we got through our first Boston winter together. Like I’m still that same mom.” Their bond took center stage at the Heisman ceremony in December, where Mendoza, through tear-filled eyes, dedicated the trophy to his mom. “Mommy, this is your trophy as much as mine. You’ve always been my biggest fan. You’re my light. You’re my why. You’re my biggest supporter. Your sacrifices, courage, love, those have been my first playbook and the playbook that I’m going to carry through my entire life. You taught me that toughness doesn’t need to be loud. It can be quiet and strong. It’s choosing hope. It’s believing in yourself when the world doesn’t give you much reason to. Together, you and I are rewriting what people think is impossible. I love you.” Mendoza said he’s using his platform to achieve his goal of “a world free of MS.” “The money raised through this campaign will help fund MS research, programs, and services so people affected by MS can live their best lives.” Mendoza is arguably living his best life right now as he gears up to take on Oregon in the College Football Playoff semifinal Friday night. He credits the success he and Indiana are having this season to his mom. “To see her optimistic and positive approach with all that she’s battling has given myself no excuse for complacency throughout my life — whether it’s academics or football,” Mendoza said on a recent podcast. “To see her fight and see her struggle and then get better … it’s been so inspiring to myself.” When Mendoza takes the field against Oregon, the spotlight will shine bright on college football’s best player, and he embraces it — knowing he’s making an impact for his mom, the person he cares about most.