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Wright Tells CNN at Davos Greenland Is About Security, Venezuela Oil Funds Are U.S.-Controlled

January 22, 2026 · U.S. Department of Energy · 0:03:41

Embedded from the source channel — never re-uploaded. Watch on YouTube

What happened

Energy Secretary Chris Wright spoke with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins at Davos on January 21, 2026, just after President Trump’s speech, in which the President ruled out using military force to acquire Greenland. Wright said he was not surprised, describing the President as all-in on NATO and focused on getting allies to raise defense spending and follow what he called common-sense energy policies so their economies strengthen.

Asked about his own recent statement that Greenland is about national security rather than resources, Wright said there is absolutely no U.S. interest in capturing Greenland’s resources for the United States, and that the President promotes mining as economic development and jobs for Greenlanders. He noted mining in Greenland is expensive and remote, that the United States already has a military base there, and that the President believes the huge investments of the Golden Dome system are better made under U.S. sovereignty, as he explained the position.

On Venezuela, Collins relayed Rep. Thomas Massie’s question about why Venezuelan oil money was held in a Qatari bank account. Wright said sanctions and U.S. law, and the need to move within about a week of the extraction of Maduro and his wife on drug charges, made the arrangement the simple and expeditious option; he said the accounts were always under U.S. government control and that the money would ultimately flow through U.S. territory and a U.S. bank account.

Why it matters

The interview is a cabinet secretary’s contemporaneous explanation of two contested moves — the Greenland sovereignty push and the offshore handling of Venezuelan oil revenue — given on the day the President publicly took military force off the table.

Sources: U.S. Department of Energy, “Secretary Wright Joins CNN’s Kaitlan Collins - January 21, 2026”, 2026-01-22 (official upload, embedded above; published 2026-01-22). Transcript via Supadata (private research store, paraphrased and attributed, not republished). All figures and characterizations as stated by the speakers.