Trump recently spoke about military action in Iran and Greenland. | The Excerpt
Trump recently spoke about military action in Iran and Greenland. | The Excerpt
On the Tuesday, January 13, 2026, episode of The Excerpt
podcast: After recent U.S. military action in Venezuela,
Trump is considering targeting more countries, including
Greenland, Iran and Cuba. The USA Today
White House Correspondent joins The Excerpt to share his report.
Play the player below to listen to the podcast and follow the
transcript below. This transcript was automatically generated
and then edited for clarity in its current form.
There may be some differences between the audio and text.
Dana Taylor:
The reach of American power is rapidly expanding in real time.
After recent U.S. military action in Venezuela,
the Trump administration is considering targeting more countries.
Has the president’s America First commitment faded,
leading to what some call the Dunroe Doctrine?
Hello and welcome to USA Today's The Excerpt.
I'm Dana Taylor. It's Tuesday, January 13, 2026.
The familiar voice of President Donald Trump from
a few months ago has now taken on a deadly serious tone.
What are the president's plans for Greenland, Colombia,
Cuba and beyond? For more on this, I'm joined now by
USA Today White House correspondent, Francesca Chambers.
Francesca Chambers:
Thanks, Dana. That's a long list of territories for us.
Dana Taylor:
We should start with Iran because a lot happened over the weekend
and Trump certainly stepped up his rhetoric. What's going on there?
Francesca Chambers:
Well, the president has said that he's looking at some strong
options with Iran and then he'll make a decision,
but there's no decision yet on what the president might do in
response to these protests.
President Trump has said before that if they start shooting,
we'll start shooting. But it’s not entirely clear at this point
whether the president will respond to these protests militarily
or otherwise.
And it’s hard to get a clear picture of the situation in Iran and
we haven’t been able to verify this number, with the US-based
Human Rights Watch reporting that the death toll is around 500.
Dana Taylor:
Why is the president focusing on Greenland? Is there a significant
national security issue here or is it more about gaining control of
natural resources?
Francesca Chambers:
I think the reason Greenland comes up so often is partly
because he and senior officials are being asked about it.
And so in response, the US has repeatedly refused to rule out
military options.
But it says it wants to resolve this diplomatically if possible.
But if you step back for a second, you bring up this idea of
America First and whether these issues are essentially mutually
exclusive with the strong military action that he’s hinting at.
And the White House view on this is,
you can still be America First, but as part of that,
you can also pursue US national security interests in some
other countries. And they say that was the case in Venezuela,
and then it might work in some other places, like Greenland,
a territory of Denmark.
