In a text, President Trump told Norway’s prime minister that he no longer felt obliged to “think purely of Peace” and that the U.S. needed the island for global security.
President Trump is now claiming that one reason he is pushing to acquire Greenland is that he didn’t win the Nobel Peace Prize, according to a text message he sent to Norway’s prime minister over the weekend.
Jonas Gahr Store, Norway’s leader, received the text message on Sunday, an official in the prime minister’s office said on Monday.
“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,” Mr. Trump wrote in the message, which was first published by PBS.
Mr. Trump also questioned Denmark’s claim to Greenland, saying, “There are no written documents,” and adding, “The World is not secure unless we have Complete and Total Control of Greenland. Thank you!”
The tensions over Greenland have sharply escalated in the last week, and the message injected a new level of uncertainty into Mr. Trump’s thinking and his campaign to gain control of the island.
Greenland has been part of the Danish Kingdom for more than 300 years, and world leaders have condemned Mr. Trump’s insistence that the United States take over the territory, a giant icebound island in the Arctic region.
According to copies of the messages provided by the Norwegian prime minister’s office, Mr. Trump’s message was a response to one that Mr. Store sent Mr. Trump on Sunday. It was co-signed by the president of Finland, Alexander Stubb, a leader with whom Mr. Trump is close.
The European leaders asked to speak to Mr. Trump about Greenland and his threat of using tariffs to pressure Denmark into selling it, which Denmark has refused to do. They asked for a phone call and struck a collaborative tone, writing, “We believe we all should work to take this down and de-escalate — so much is happening around us where we need to stand together.”
After Mr. Trump’s response, Mr. Store said in a statement, “As regards the Nobel Peace Prize, I have on several occasions 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,” Mr. Store said.
The White House did not respond to requests for comment.
Mr. Trump has repeatedly challenged Denmark’s claims to Greenland, but in decades-old agreements that the United States has signed with Denmark, the United States has recognized Denmark’s close connection to the island.
A 2004 amendment to an older defense pact between Denmark and the United States, which grants the United States broad military access, explicitly recognizes Greenland as “an equal part of the Kingdom of Denmark.”
And
in 1916, Denmark sold what are now the U.S. Virgin Islands to the
United States for $25 million in gold. In the treaty for that deal, a
clause reads, “The United States of America will not object to the
Danish Government extending their political and economic interests to
the whole of Greenland.”
In the past year, as Mr. Trump has
repeatedly vowed to “get” Greenland, Denmark has repeatedly rebuffed
him. Denmark’s position is that it does not have the authority to sell
the self-governing territory and that Greenland’s 57,000 inhabitants
will decide their own fate. Polls and interviews show that an
overwhelming majority of Greenlanders strongly oppose joining the United
States.
On Saturday, Greenlanders
staged the biggest protest of recent months. Hundreds marched through
the snowy streets of Nuuk, the capital, chanting, “No means no,”
“Greenland is already great” and “Yankee, go home!”
In the past
few days, Denmark and other European countries have sent more military
forces to the island. Small groups of Danish soldiers dressed in green
camouflage and dark woolen hats have been walking through downtown Nuuk.
Beyond the harbor, a 200-foot-long Danish warship capable of breaking
through ice has been patrolling the shoreline.
A much-anticipated three-way meeting last week of the United States, Denmark and Greenland, hosted by Vice President JD Vance in Washington, did not produce any breakthroughs and seemed to instead create misunderstandings.
It was the first time Greenland had been included in such high-level discussions, and the Danish and Greenlandic officials left saying that a working group had been formed to explore possibilities for a solution. But the Trump administration said afterwards that the two sides would begin “technical talks on the acquisition of Greenland,” a statement that raised even more concern in Greenland, in Denmark and across Europe.
Patrick Kingsley, Jeanna Smialek and Steven Erlanger contributed reporting.
Jeffrey Gettleman is an international correspondent based in London covering global events. He has worked for The Times for more than 20 years.
