Trump Not Thinking ‘Purely Of Peace’ In Greenland Push

Donald Trump warned he no longer feels obliged to think “purely of peace” after being snubbed for a Nobel prize, in a text message published Monday as the US president ramps up his campaign to take over Greenland.

In an extraordinary exchange with Norway’s prime minister, Trump questioned Denmark’s right to the vast Arctic island, over which he said he wanted “complete and total control”.

“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 to Norway’s Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store.

“Denmark cannot protect that land from Russia or China, and why do they have a ‘right of ownership’ anyway? There are no written documents.

“The World is not secure unless we have Complete and Total Control of Greenland.”

The message came days after Trump threatened hefty new tariffs on European allies who oppose his plan to buy Greenland, raising alarm in allied capitals and sending stock markets plummeting when they opened on Monday.

German and French leaders denounced those tariff threats as “blackmail,” while Paris said Europe needed to prepare to hit back.

That prompted pre-emptive rebuke from US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

“I think it would be very unwise,” he told AFP as he arrived at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Trump’s latest broadside has yet again left allies scrambling to chart a course between pushing back firmly enough, and not angering the mercurial US leader.

The European Union said it would hold an emergency summit on Thursday to weigh its response, and that while its priority was to “engage not escalate” it was ready to act.

Greenland, where thousands took to the streets over the weekend carrying banners with anti-US slogans like “Make America Go Away,” said Trump’s tariff threats made no difference to the island.

“We will not be pressured,” Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said in a Facebook post, adding that the autonomous territory “is a democratic society with the right to make its own decisions”.

READ ALSO: Morocco’s King Accepts Invitation To Join Trump ‘Peace Board’

Norway PM Store said Trump’s text came in response to a message from him and Finnish President Alexander Stubb, where they had “conveyed our opposition” to the tariff threats.

“I have clearly explained, including to President Trump, what is well known — the prize is awarded by an independent Nobel Committee,” not the Norwegian government, he said in a statement.

Despite the direct link that Trump himself was drawing, Bessent told AFP in Davos there was no connection between the award and the billionaire’s quest for Greenland.

“I think it’s a complete canard that the president will be doing this because of the Nobel Prize,” he said.

Trump has repeatedly said his country needs vast, mineral-rich Greenland for “national security”, despite the United States already having a base on the island and security agreements with NATO ally Denmark.

Denmark’s Defence Minister Troels Lund Poulsen Monday, met with the organisation’s chief Mark Rutte to present a proposal for surveillance operations based in Greenland.

Rutte wrote on X that he had discussed “how important the Arctic — including Greenland — is to our collective security” with the Danish minister and Greenland’s top diplomat. “We’ll continue to work together as Allies on these important issues,” he wrote.

Meanwhile, aircraft from North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), a joint US-Canada military organization, were announced to arrive “soon” at the US Pituffik Space Base in Greenland for “long planned” activities, the organization said Monday.

Trump’s tariff threats, which he said would see Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Finland hit with a 10-percent duty on all goods sent to the United States from February 1, sent investors scurrying for safety.

Precious metals surged, with silver up four percent to a new high as market players sought shelter from falling stocks.

Frankfurt was down 1.3 percent at the close, while Paris was off 1.8 percent.

US markets were shut for the Martin Luther King Day public holiday, but futures trading looked dismal, with both the broad-based S&P 500 and the tech-focused Nasdaq off around one percent.

AFP