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US President Donald Trump linked his pursuit of Greenland to his failure to win the Nobel Peace Prize in a message to Norway’s prime minister.
Trump told Jonas Gahr Støre in a text message that “thinking that your Country has decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize … I no longer feel the obligation to think purely about Peace, although it has always prevailed, but now can think about what is good and appropriate for the United States of America”.
The US president added: “The World is not safe unless we have Complete and Total Control over Greenland.”
Støre confirmed on Monday morning that he received the message in response to a text he sent to Trump protesting against the move to impose tariffs on Norway and other European countries for sending troops to Greenland. PBS News first reported the text.
The 2025 prize was awarded to María Corina Machado, the leader of the Venezuelan opposition, who gave the Nobel medal to Trump at the White House last week in “recognition of his extraordinary commitment” to the freedom of his country.
In a campaign to win the prize, Trump claimed to have ended eight wars since returning to the White House a year ago.
Norway has repeatedly told Trump that an independent committee — whose members are chosen by the country’s parliament — chooses the Nobel Peace Prize winner, not the government.
“We had a long struggle to convince China,” a Norwegian diplomat said of the decision to award the 2010 Peace Prize to Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, after Beijing took economic actions against the Norwegian government. “Now we have the same struggle with Trump.”
Trump also repeated his claim that Denmark’s control of Greenland is questionable, despite the fact that the US has recognized it several times in treaties, including the 1916-17 convention on the sale of the Danish West Indies.
He wrote to Støre: “Denmark cannot protect that land from Russia or China, and why do they have “property rights” anyway? There are no written documents, but there was a boat that landed there hundreds of years ago, but we have boats that landed there, too.
Trump added: “I have done more for NATO than any other person since its inception, and now, NATO must do something for the United States.”
Støre said on Monday that his message – for himself and Finnish president Alexander Stubb – focused on the need to “decrease the exchange of words, and requested a phone call between Trump, Stubb and me during the day”.
PBS said it received Trump’s message after it was forwarded to “several” European embassies in Washington.