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President Donald Trump privately linked his increasingly aggressive posture toward Greenland to his failure to win the Nobel Peace Prize last year, telling Norway’s prime minister that he no longer felt “an obligation to think purely of Peace,” according to two European officials familiar with the exchange.
The message, sent to Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, underscores the extent to which Trump has personalized a rapidly escalating dispute with U.S. allies over his repeated threats to take control of Greenland, a self-governing territory within NATO member Denmark.
On Saturday, Trump announced a 10% import tax beginning in February on goods from eight countries that have publicly backed Denmark and Greenland, including Norway. The move prompted a coordinated European rebuke and deepened tensions between Washington and key allies already strained by disagreements over Ukraine, trade, defense spending and migration policy.
While the White House has not ruled out using force to take control of the strategically located Arctic island, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer sought to calm the situation Monday, saying he did not believe military action would occur.
“I think this can be resolved and should be resolved through calm discussion,” Starmer said, while warning that a trade war would benefit no one.
A Personal Turn in a Strategic Dispute
According to the two European officials, Trump’s message to Gahr Støre explicitly tied his stance on Greenland to the Nobel Peace Prize, which he has long coveted.
“Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace,” Trump wrote, according to the officials, adding that peace would remain “predominant” but that he would now focus on what was “good and proper for the United States of America.”
The message concluded with a blunt assertion: “The World is not secure unless we have Complete and Total Control of Greenland.”
The officials said the message was circulated among multiple European ambassadors in Washington. PBS News first reported on the contents of the note.
The White House declined to comment on the message or the rationale behind it.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, speaking in Davos, Switzerland, defended Trump’s Greenland strategy while distancing himself from the reported communication.
“I don’t know anything about the president’s letter to Norway,” Bessent said, before rejecting the idea that Trump’s actions were driven by resentment over the Nobel Prize.
“He is looking at Greenland as a strategic asset for the United States,” Bessent said. “We are not going to outsource our hemispheric security to anyone else.”
European Leaders Push Back
Gahr Støre confirmed Monday that he received a text message from Trump but declined to release its contents. He said the message was a response to a note he and Finnish President Alexander Stubb had sent urging de-escalation and proposing a phone call among the leaders.
“Norway’s position on Greenland is clear,” Gahr Støre said in a statement. “Greenland is a part of the Kingdom of Denmark, and Norway fully supports the Kingdom of Denmark on this matter.”
He also emphasized that the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded by an independent committee, not the Norwegian government.
“As regards the Nobel Peace Prize, I have clearly explained, including to President Trump, what is well known,” he said.
Gahr Støre told TV2 Norway that he had not yet responded to Trump’s message but hoped to speak with him later this week at the World Economic Forum.
Growing Fallout in Greenland and Europe
The latest escalation has reverberated across Europe and Greenland itself. Over the weekend, thousands of Greenlanders marched in protest of any attempt by the United States to seize control of the island.
Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said Monday that tariff threats would not alter the territory’s position.
“We will not be pressured,” he wrote on Facebook.
Naaja Nathanielsen, Greenland’s minister for business, minerals, energy, justice and equality, said the swift backing from European allies reflected broader fears about U.S. power.
“I think a lot of countries are afraid that if they let Greenland go, what would be next?” she told The Associated Press.
Trump has framed the tariff threats partly as retaliation for symbolic troop deployments by European countries to Greenland, though European governments say the missions were designed to assess Arctic security in response to concerns about Russian and Chinese activity — concerns Trump himself has raised.
Six of the eight countries targeted by Trump’s tariffs are members of the European Union, which negotiates trade as a bloc. European Council President Antonio Costa said EU leaders have expressed “readiness to defend ourselves against any form of coercion” and announced an emergency summit for Thursday.
Starmer, whose country is not part of the EU, said Britain is not planning retaliatory tariffs but warned that pragmatism does not mean capitulation.
“Being pragmatic does not mean being passive, and partnership does not mean abandoning principles,” he said.
Nobel Prize Looms Over the Dispute
Trump’s fixation on the Nobel Peace Prize has resurfaced repeatedly during his second term. The prize was awarded last year to Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado. Last week, Machado presented her Nobel medal to Trump during a White House visit — a symbolic gesture Trump said he would keep, even as the Nobel Committee stressed the award cannot be transferred or shared.
The committee is independent, with members appointed by Norway’s parliament, but it operates separately from the Norwegian government.
As Denmark’s defense minister and Greenland’s foreign minister prepare to meet NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte in Brussels, European officials say Trump’s latest message has raised fresh questions about whether his Greenland push is being driven as much by personal grievance as by strategic calculation.
