U.S. President Donald Trump said he no longer feels “bound to think exclusively about peace” after failing to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, while renewing his call for the United States to take control of Greenland, according to a letter sent to Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre.
Støre said in a statement on Monday that the letter followed a joint message he and Finnish President Alexander Stubb had sent to Trump opposing Washington’s decision to impose tariffs on European allies who refused to allow the United States to take control of Greenland.
Trump has threatened to impose an additional 10% tariff from Feb. 1, rising to 25% in June, “until an agreement is reached on the full and comprehensive purchase of Greenland,” according to the letter.
“Because your country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize, despite the fact that I stopped eight wars and more, I no longer feel bound to think only about peace,” Trump wrote. “Peace will always remain the most important thing, but I can now think about what serves the interests of the United States of America.”
Nobel ‘independent’
Støre said he had repeatedly told Trump that the Nobel Committee is fully independent and beyond the control of the Norwegian government. “I explained clearly, including to President Trump, that the prize is awarded by an independent committee,” he said.
Trump has publicly campaigned for the Nobel Peace Prize, which was awarded last year to Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado. Machado handed her gold medal to Trump during a White House meeting last week, despite the Nobel Committee stressing that the prize cannot be transferred, shared or revoked.
Greenland and sovereignty
In the same letter, Trump again questioned Denmark’s sovereignty over Greenland, saying Copenhagen cannot protect the territory from Russia or China and asking why it has the right to own it. “There are no written documents — just a ship that landed there hundreds of years ago, and we have ships there too,” he wrote.
“The world will not be safe until we have full and absolute control over Greenland,” Trump added.
Greenland is a mineral-rich, self-governing territory of the Kingdom of Denmark in the Arctic. Since returning to office a year ago, Trump has repeatedly raised the idea of taking control of the island, citing what he calls U.S. national security concerns amid growing Russian and Chinese activity in the Arctic.
