Trump affirms that he no longer feels obliged to focus “on peace” because Norway did not award him the Nobel Prize | International

The fault that Donald Trump wants to annex Greenland He’s from… Norway. For not having given the Nobel Peace Prize to the American president. It’s not a parody, although it may seem like it. This is what he himself says in a message addressed to the Norwegian Prime Minister, Jonas Gahr Store, forwarded to numerous European embassies in Washington and in which he warns that, without the award, he no longer feels obliged to seek peace. The text, confirmed by Store, has been released one day before the Republican travels to Davos Forum (Switzerland) to give a speech there on Wednesday.

It doesn’t matter that the Norwegian government has nothing to do with the decisions made by the Nobel Committee, an independent entity. The committee chose to award last year’s recognition to María Corina Machado, the leader of the Venezuelan opposition. Trump makes clear his resentment at not having obtained the trophy he so desires.

“Dear Jonas: Considering that your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Prize for having stopped Eight Wars AND MORE, I no longer feel the obligation to think only about Peace, although that will always be predominant,” writes the President of the United States, in a message whose existence was initially disclosed by the American public television channel PBS. “Now I can think about what is good and right for the United States of America” when making decisions.

He immediately goes on to repeat his arguments to demand the annexation of Greenland, the semi-autonomous Arctic island under the sovereignty of the Kingdom of Denmark that he insists he will end up controlling well through a purchase. or by force. “Denmark cannot protect Greenland from Russia and China, and in any case, why do they have ownership rights? There are no written documents, it’s just that one of their ships docked there hundreds of years ago, but we also had ships docking,” he writes.

“I have done more for NATO than anyone else.” since its foundationand now NATO should do something for the United States,” he declares. And he concludes: “The World is not safe until we have total and absolute control over Greenland. Thank you! Signed, President DJT.”

The Norwegian Prime Minister has confirmed the authenticity of the document, a text message he received on Sunday afternoon in response to another previous communication that he and Finnish President Alexander Stubb had sent to Trump. “We conveyed our position against the increase in tariffs to Norway, Finland and other countries. We pointed out the need to reduce tension and requested a phone call between Trump, Stubb and I throughout the day. The response (from the American) came shortly after. It was Trump’s decision to share his message with other leaders of NATO countries,” Store said in a statement on Monday.

The Norwegian has also reiterated his country’s position of support for Denmark on the sovereignty of Greenland, and the reinforcement of “NATO’s work in favor of security and stability in the Arctic.” Regarding the Nobel Prize, he specifies: “I have repeatedly explained to Trump what is well known. It is the independent Nobel committee, and not the Norwegian Government, that awards the prize.”

After the us military operation in which the president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores, were kidnapped in their hideout in Caracas, Trump has redoubled his bellicose language about his ambitions to possess the Arctic island in one way or another. It has also begun to take action with pressure measures on Copenhagen and other European partners.

This weekend announced the imposition of tariffs up to 25% against Denmark and seven other NATO countries that have sent small contingents to participate in military maneuvers in Greenland with the aim of protecting the Arctic territory, in a measure that took Europe by surprise and unleashed countless calls between the continent’s foreign ministries to coordinate response steps. EU ambassadors met on Sunday to discuss what decisions to take should Trump follow through on his threats.

In a joint statement responding to that threat, those countries—Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom—have warned that the threats “undermine transatlantic relations.” France and other countries, as well as the European Commission, have asked that the European replica consider using the anti-coercion instrumenta tool that requires a majority and allows, among other things, to freeze access to European public markets or block certain investments.

Also discussed at Sunday’s meeting was the possibility of applying additional tariffs on US imports to products worth 93 billion euros, levies that were suspended after the controversial trade agreement with the United States last August. as diplomatic sources have confirmed to EL PAÍS. The bloc’s leaders will meet at an emergency summit this coming Thursday.

“NATO has been telling Denmark for 20 years that ‘it has to remove the Russian threat from Greenland’. Unfortunately, Denmark has not been able to do anything about it. Now is the time, and it will be done!” Trump repeated this Monday on his social network, Truth. That message has been reiterated by several senior US officials, including Scott Bessent, the Treasury secretary. Bessent has described Europe as “too weak” to defend Greenland in an interview with NBC television.

The American president often mocks the Danish device to defend Greenland, which he describes as “two dog sleds”, without taking into account that it is a NATO territory; that the United States already has a base there, the Pituffik space base; that the agreements signed with Denmark allow it to establish as many bases and military forces as it wants on the island, and that Copenhagen offers it all kinds of facilities to increase economic and military cooperation.

Trump claims that the territory is at the mercy of any attempt by Russia or China to conquer it and that only the United States can do so adequately. And only if he owns the island, because “it is not treated the same as something rented,” according to him. It is, as he declared in an interview with the newspaper The New York Times granted after the attack in Venezuela, a “psychological issue.” A question of his, he specified, not of the United States.

The Republican also points out that the island is a fundamental element for the anti-missile shield that he dreams of, the Golden Dome that he wants to protect the entire US territory. The project, with an initial budget of 175 billion dollars (about 150 billion euros), should be completed in 2028, according to the objective set by the White House.

“Pathetic”

The decision of the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize winner, María Corina Machado, to present the prize medal to Trump has sparked the indignation of politicians and analysts cited by the Norwegian press, which defines that act as “pathetic” and “ridiculous.”

It also gave rise to a rejection statement of the Norwegian Committee last Friday, in which the institution that awards the prize simply stated that “the Nobel Prize and the winner are inseparable.” “Even if the medal or diploma subsequently passes into the hands of another person, this does not alter who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize,” the committee emphasizes. Therefore, he ditches, “a prize cannot, even symbolically, be transferred or redistributed.”