U.S. President Donald Trump stated that he no longer feels obligated to focus solely on peace in a letter sent to Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, attempting to justify his recent threats toward Greenland.
The letter was reportedly shared with several European embassies in Washington.
In it, Trump accused Norway of deciding not to award him the Nobel Peace Prize, which he claimed he deserved for “ending eight wars.” He wrote:
“I no longer feel the obligation to think only about peace, although it will always be paramount. Now I can consider what is good and suitable for the United States of America.”
The Norwegian parliament appoints the five members of the Nobel Committee, but the government does not directly choose the winner, according to The Journal.
Last week, Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, a Nobel laureate, presented Trump with a medal during a White House visit. However, the Nobel Committee emphasized that possession of a medal does not make one a laureate:
“Regardless of what happens with the medal, diploma, or prize money, the original laureate remains the one officially recorded in history as the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize,” the committee said.
In his letter to Støre, Trump reiterated that Denmark, which governs Greenland, cannot protect the Arctic island, claiming it is vulnerable to Russia and China. He argued:
“Denmark cannot defend that land from Russia or China, and why they have any ownership is unclear. There are no written documents, only that a ship landed there hundreds of years ago, while we also had ships land there.”
The letter underscores Trump’s ongoing assertion that U.S. strategic interests justify his stance toward Greenland, amid international scrutiny over his Arctic policy.
