US President Donald Trump has said that the denial of the Nobel Peace Prize has ended his obligation to pursue peace, invoking the snub to justify his demand for American occupation of Denmark’s Greenland island.
Trump made the assertions in a letter addressed to Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, which was also forwarded by the National Security Council to European ambassadors posted in Washington DC, as reported by multiple people including PBS correspondent Nick Schifrin.
“Dear Jonas: Considering your country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped eight wars plus [sic], 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,” Trump reportedly wrote.
He then pivoted to Greenland, rejecting Denmark’s sovereignty over the Arctic island and questioning its historical claim.
“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,” Trump said in the letter.
He went on to call on Nato to hand over Greenland to the US, arguing that “the world is not secure unless we have Complete and Total Control of Greenland.”
The Nobel Peace Prize is not awarded by the Norwegian government but by an independent committee, a distinction that Trump did not acknowledge.
The US President reinforced his position in a post on his social media platform Truth Social on Monday, claiming that Nato had long raised concerns about Greenland’s security.
“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 wrote.
The comments come as Trump and his allies have stepped up their campaign to occupy Greenland, forcefully if needed.
Last week, Trump imposed a 10 per cent tariff on Denmark and seven other European countries that have opposed the campaign.
He said the tariff would rise to 25 per cent if control of Greenland was not handed over to the US by June.
In response, European Union ambassadors met on Sunday to discuss possible countermeasures should Trump carry out his threats, including tariffs on about €93 billion or $108 billion worth of American goods.
EU leaders are scheduled to meet for an emergency summit on Thursday.
Global markets have been hit by renewed volatility following Trump’s tariff threats, with stocks sliding and the dollar broadly weakening as trade uncertainty intensified.
