Trump links Greenland threats to Nobel Peace Prize snub

Alberto Nardelli and Heidi Taksdal Skjeseth, Bloomberg News on Jan 19, 2026

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Donald Trump linked his claims on Greenland to not being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in a letter the U.S. president sent to Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store.

“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 says in the letter obtained by Bloomberg. “Although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America.”

“The World is not secure unless we have Complete and Total Control of Greenland,” the U.S. president added.

The Nobel Peace Prize isn’t decided by the Norwegian government but is awarded by an independent committee.

“Regarding the Nobel Peace Prize, I have several times clearly explained to Trump what is well known, namely that it is an independent Nobel Committee, and not the Norwegian government, that awards the prize,” Store said in a statement sent to Bloomberg.

A request for comment sent to the White House wasn’t immediately returned.

Trump’s text message came as a response to a message sent by Store with Finnish President Alexander Stubb where they “pointed out the need to de-escalate the exchange of words and requested a telephone conversation” over Greenland, Store said.

“This message exchange that was leaked on Sunday was not that exceptional,” Stubb told reporters in Davos on Monday, adding that he’s still frequently in touch with Trump.

“As you can tell, the message exchanges are often pretty frank,” the Finnish president said.

Trump rattled NATO allies over the weekend after threatening to impose tariffs on a group of European members of the alliance if he doesn’t get control of Greenland. The escalation prompted outrage among European Union leaders and a call by French President Emmanuel Macron to activate the bloc’s most powerful retaliation tool.

EU ambassadors met Sunday to discuss options if Trump follows through with his threats, including tariffs on some 93 billion euros ($108 billion) worth of American goods. The bloc’s leaders are due to meet for an emergency summit on Thursday.

“NATO has been telling Denmark, for 20 years, that ‘you have to get the Russian threat away from Greenland.’ Unfortunately, Denmark has been unable to do anything about it. Now it is time, and it will be done!!!,” Trump posted on the social media platform Truth Social on Monday.

His message has been echoed by several senior U.S. officials, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent who told NBC’s "Meet the Press" that Europe was too weak to ensure Greenland’s security in an interview on Sunday.

Separately, Norway reacted with disbelief last week after Nobel Peace Prize laureate María Corina Machado gave her medal to Trump, who has long coveted the award. Trump, who says he deserves the peace prize for claiming to have resolved numerous wars during his second term, accepted the medal from the Venezuelan opposition leader at a White House meeting.

“The Nobel Prize and the laureate are inseparable,” the Norwegian Nobel Committee said in a statement Friday. “Even if the medal or diploma later comes into someone else’s possession, this does not alter who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.”

In a separate post on social media Sunday, the Nobel committee said “a prize can therefore not, even symbolically, be passed on or further distributed.”

Trump’s letter to Norway’s prime minister, which was first reported by a PBS journalist on X, was shared by Trump’s National Security Council with several other European governments, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private correspondence.

The full text of the letter:

“Dear Jonas: 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, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America. Denmark cannot protect that land from Russia or China, and why do they have a “right of ownership” anyway? There are no written documents, it’s only that a boat landed there hundreds of years ago, but we had boats landing there, also. I have done more for NATO than any other person since its founding, and now, NATO should do something for the United States. The World is not secure unless we have Complete and Total Control of Greenland. Thank you! President DJT”

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(With assistance from Kati Pohjanpalo, Jenny Leonard and Kirsi Heikel.)