The “I” of the storm

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Politics U.S.

By James Oliphant, national political correspondent

Donald Trump is a human hurricane. The second-term president typically has so many plates spinning that it can be difficult to track exactly what's going on at any given moment. He places himself at the center of controversy, often by his own design.

Reuters this week sat down with Trump for a 30-minute interview in the Oval Office and pressed him on where his foreign and domestic agenda stands almost a year into his presidency.

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Forging his own path

Trump was interviewed by Reuters correspondent Steve Holland, who has covered every U.S. president since George H.W. Bush. Holland said Trump appeared to be in a good mood and spoke confidently about his record and his next three years in office. "It's been a great year, hasn't it?" Trump remarked at the outset.

One thing that became vividly clear during the interview is that Trump continues to follow his own instincts, outright dismissing his critics, even when they come from his own party.

The sit-down came after an intensely watched meeting at the White House with officials from Denmark in which the Trump administration reiterated its desire to wrest control of Greenland. When told that a Reuters/Ipsos poll found tepid support among Americans for such a move, Trump called the poll "fake."

He waved off concerns of Senate Republicans over the Justice Department's probe into Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, saying "I don't care."

"I don't care," he said again, when reminded of JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon's fears that White House interference in the Fed could harm the economy. When asked about Americans' worries about high prices, Trump claimed that the economy was the strongest "in history" and said he had to do a better job of promoting his achievements. (He referred to a specially prepared thick binder that listed his accomplishments in office.)

The interview was a reminder that much of Trump's agenda remains in flux, and whether it is ultimately considered a success depends on what happens over the next few months. It came on a day when the president was mulling whether to use military force to protect protesters in Iran, a nation he views as an obstacle to lasting peace in the Middle East. To that end, his hard-fought ceasefire deal in Gaza is showing signs of strain, with Trump conceding he wasn't sure whether the militant group Hamas would disarm. "They were born with a gun in the hand," he said.

On the still-elusive deal that would bring the war in Ukraine to an end, Trump squarely blamed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who has maintained his country won't seek peace at any cost, for holding up an agreement Trump claims Russia is prepared to sign.

He continued to back the deployment of armed ICE officers in American cities even with the backlash to the shooting death of Renee Good in Minneapolis last week. He said the agent who shot Good was in a "tough situation." (Critics have argued her death was an unnecessary overreaction by the agents; the Trump administration says the agent was protecting himself. On Thursday, amid mounting protests, Trump threatened to send troops into Minnesota.)

On the economy, Trump insisted it was in historic shape and that Americans simply need to listen to him. This was a day after the president toured an auto plant in Michigan to promote his economic agenda, a headline that got buried after Trump flipped off a worker with an obscene gesture.

That incident may have encapsulated Trump's second term – an emboldened leader who is seeking to reinvent the presidency in his own blunt image. As the interview showed, Trump is not mindful of his critics, nor is he about to change his ways. At the end, he jokingly boasted about how he could rapidly shift from one topic to another, noting that at an earlier White House event that day he had promoted the benefits of whole milk.

"Did you see today?" he asked Holland. "I discussed milk, Iran. I discussed everything."

With Donald Trump, everything continues to be a lot.

Do you approve of Trump's efforts to acquire Greenland?

Follow Reuters/Ipsos polling on the president's approval ratings here.

The view from Nuuk

Greenlanders anxiously watched the high-stakes meeting between U.S. officials and a delegation from Denmark and Greenland to discuss the fate of the country. "I have been sleeping very, very badly, really," said Liv Aurora Jensen from her home overlooking a sprawling fjord. "It's really frightening."

Photo of the week

U.S. President Donald Trump is interviewed by Reuters White House correspondent Steve Holland during an exclusive interview in the Oval Office in the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., January 14, 2026. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein

What to watch for

January 20-22: Trump attends World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland
February 24: Trump delivers State of the Union address

The who, what and when

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