{"id":2904,"date":"2026-01-12T07:07:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T07:07:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/geopoliticsamongstates.gr\/?p=2904"},"modified":"2026-01-12T07:07:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T07:07:14","slug":"nytimes-trump-lays-out-a-vision-of-power-restrained-only-by-my-own-morality%c2%b9","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/geopoliticsamongstates.gr\/?p=2904","title":{"rendered":"NYTimes: Trump Lays Out a Vision of Power Restrained Only by \u2018My Own Morality\u2019\u00b9"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By David E. SangerTyler PagerKatie Rogers and Zolan Kanno-Youngs<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The reporters are White House correspondents for The Times. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They interviewed President Trump in the Oval Office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jan. 8, 2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Core take aways <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr. Trump said: \u201cYeah, there is one thing. My own morality. My own mind. It\u2019s the only thing that can stop me.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t need international law,\u201d he added. \u201cI\u2019m not looking to hurt people.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When pressed further about whether his administration needed to abide by international law, Mr. Trump said, \u201cI do.\u201d But he made clear he would be the arbiter when such constraints applied to the United States.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt depends what your definition of international law is,\u201d he said.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr. Trump\u2019s assessment of his own freedom to use any instrument of military, economic or political power to cement American supremacy was the most blunt acknowledgment yet of his worldview. At its core is the concept that national strength, rather than laws, treaties and conventions, should be the deciding factor as powers collide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On topic after topic, he made clear that in his mind, U.S. power is the determining factor \u2014 and that previous presidents have been too cautious to make use of it for political supremacy or national profit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The president\u2019s insistence that Greenland must become part of the United States was a prime example of his worldview. It was not enough to exercise the U.S. right, under a 1951 treaty, to reopen long-closed military bases on the huge landmass, which is a strategically important crossroads for U.S., European, Chinese and Russian naval operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump Lays Out a Vision of Power Restrained Only by \u2018My Own Morality\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/01\/08\/us\/politics\/trump-interview-power-morality.html?unlocked_article_code=1.DFA.7Ll-.21mqARAdUs0u&smid=nytcore-android-share<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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By David E. SangerTyler PagerKatie Rogers and Zolan Kanno-Youngs The reporters are White House correspondents for The Times.  They interviewed President Trump in the Oval Office. Jan. 8, 2026 Core take aways  Mr. Trump said: \u201cYeah, there is one thing. My own morality. My own mind. It\u2019s the only thing that can stop me.\u201d \u201cI don\u2019t need international law,\u201d he added. \u201cI\u2019m not looking to hurt people.\u201d When pressed further about whether his administration needed to abide by international law, Mr. Trump said, \u201cI do.\u201d But he made clear he…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2908,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-studies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/geopoliticsamongstates.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/geopoliticsamongstates.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/geopoliticsamongstates.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geopoliticsamongstates.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geopoliticsamongstates.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2904"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/geopoliticsamongstates.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2904\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2909,"href":"https:\/\/geopoliticsamongstates.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2904\/revisions\/2909"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geopoliticsamongstates.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/geopoliticsamongstates.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geopoliticsamongstates.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geopoliticsamongstates.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}