President Donald Trump speaks during a press briefing at the White House in Washington. (AP Photo) US President Donald Trump made a surprise appearance at the White House’s press briefing, along with Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on Tuesday to mark the first anniversary of the start of his second term. The US president came with a large binder of files, which according to him, was a list of “achievements”.
The extraordinary appearance of the US president comes at a time when America is facing pushback from its European allies over the threat of imposing a 10% tariff for not accepting US take over of Greenland.
.@POTUS takes the podium in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room on the one year anniversary of the start of his second term: “It’s been an amazing period of time… We’ve done more than any other administration has done by far.” pic.twitter.com/g9CLwcFSQ2
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) January 20, 2026
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen described Trump’s proposed tariff as “a mistake especially between long-standing allies” and questioned the US president’s trustworthiness, reminding the Trump administration that he had said he would not impose additional tariffs on the members of the bloc.
Trump said he is soon going to a “beautiful place in Switzerland,” adding, “I’m sure I’m very happily awaited for.” Notably, the US president is expected to join the World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland on Wednesday.
Briefly mentioning about Venezuela’s opposition leader María Corina Machado, Trump praised the Nobel Peace Prize winner and said he would like to get Machado “involved” in Venezuela.
“Maybe we can get her involved in some way,” Trump said, calling Machado “an unbelievably nice woman.” This comes after Machado gave her Nobel prize to Trump while visiting White House earlier this month.
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Talking about tariffs, the US president said, “I don’t know what the Supreme Court is going to do,” in reference to the tariff case’s legality whose verdict by the apex court is awaited.
“We’ve taken hundreds of billions of dollars, and if we lose that case it’s possible we’ll have to do the best we can in paying it back,” Trump added.
