SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Relatively balmy, cloudy with a high in the 40s today in Nuuk, the capital of Greenland. And talk of Greenland is where we begin with NPR senior contributor Ron Elving. Ron, thanks so much for being with us.
RON ELVING, BYLINE: Good to chill out with you, Scott.
SIMON: At the World Economic Forum in Davos this week, President Trump said he'd reached a framework for a deal on Greenland. What kind of deal seems to be at hand after weeks of threats of military action and tariffs and musing about buying Greenland?
ELVING: We don't have all the details yet, and there's a good deal yet to be learned and assessed for significance. The U.S. looks to have more military presence beyond the Pituffik base - used to be called Thule. We have that in Greenland, and it's been part of the Distant Early Warning system for generations now. But we also expect to see more mining of strategic materials, such as the rare earths, essential to computers and other high-tech products. The deal would bolster the presence of NATO in general in the Arctic and restrict Russian and Chinese efforts to get mining rights for those rare earths in Greenland. Those two items speak to the fears expressed in a lot of President Trump's rhetoric when he was talking about seizing the territory by force.
SIMON: Ron, I want to be careful about raising this, but I think it's important to ask you. President Trump rambled a lot in his remarks at Davos. He referred to Greenland as Iceland several times. He mocked the sacrifices, lives lost of U.S. allies and seemed not to know that, in fact, NATO had come to the defense of the United States after 9/11. President Biden had a shaky debate performance. There were calls from both parties for him to step down. Has President Trump's conduct made his mental health a genuine concern?
ELVING: One big difference between this moment and the Biden debate is that Trump is not on the ballot in November the way Biden was. But hundreds of other Republicans are, as candidates for Congress and state offices. The Biden example is not lost on those campaigns. And they will be hearing questions. Trump will be 80 in June. People notice changes in his walk and his talk and changes on his face and his hands. Then they start noticing behavior, noticing when he loses his temper repeatedly over small things or when he says adverse polls in The New York Times are fake and fraudulent and should be treated as a criminal offense or when he goes on sending social media messages well into the wee hours.
This kind of change in a president was not discussed publicly in the past. But in the wide-open ethos of 21st-century social media, Scott, nothing seems out of bounds. So we have to begin seeing mentions of the 25th Amendment, which was enacted 60 years ago to set a formal procedure in situations that might arise if the president were incapacitated. And it's only been used in temporary situations up to now, such as the president undergoing surgery.
SIMON: Canada's Prime Minister Carney had strong words for the president in Davos. Brussels Thursday, President Macron of France urged his fellow EU leaders to implement economic anticoercion measures against the U.S., referred to as a trade bazooka. EU did not agree, but Germany also expressed interest. What does this tell us about the state of the U.S. among those nations usually considered its staunchest allies?
ELVING: It says that no matter how politely people may smile and applaud in the audience, they do have ears and egos. World leaders, such as we saw at Davos, have national pride and personal pride, just as we do. And they don't appreciate being treated as junior partners or ungrateful children.
SIMON: House Oversight Committee voted to hold Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton in contempt for refusing to comply with subpoenas in their investigation of Jeffrey Epstein. Lawyers for the Clintons say they have communicated voluntarily with the committee but that the subpoenas were a ploy to attempt to embarrass political rivals. Where does this go now?
ELVING: Two senior advisers from Trump's first term went to jail rather than cooperate with Congress. I doubt anyone expects the Clinton case to go that route, but one unintended consequence could happen. It may keep the Epstein saga in the news at a time when it might have been losing some steam.
SIMON: NPR's Ron Elving. Thanks so much. Take care.
ELVING: Thank you, Scott. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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