President Donald Trump warned Europe that he no longer feels “the obligation to think purely of peace,” linking his efforts to seize Greenland to his failure to win the Nobel Peace Prize, Norway’s leader has said.
The message was the latest move in the spiraling transatlantic tensions between the United States and Europe, whose leaders vowed Monday not to be blackmailed by Trump’s intensifying pressure campaign to seize the Danish territory.
As European powers scrambled to respond to Trump’s promise to implement tariffs on countries that stand in his way, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre went public with the president’s warning.
“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,” Trump said in the message, the text of which was first reported by PBS and confirmed as accurate in a statement by the Norwegian leader.
The White House did not immediately respond to an overnight request for comment from NBC News.
European governments vowed a strong response to their postwar friend in Washington.
“Germany and France agree: We will not allow ourselves to be blackmailed,” German Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil said at his ministry. “Blackmail between allies of 250 years, blackmail between friends, is obviously unacceptable,” French Finance Minister Roland Lescure said at the same event.
“We Europeans must make it clear: The limit has been reached,” Klingbeil said.
Their comments came as officials on the continent weighed how to counter Trump’s tariff threat, ahead of an emergency summit in Brussels on Thursday.
In the short term, European governments are considering a range of options including their own tariffs. Another is the European Union’s “bazooka” — officially known as the Anti-Coercion Instrument, which has never been used before.
This allows E.U. countries to take retaliatory action against any rivals seen as threatening the bloc, and could involve restricting American access to tenders or investment proposals.
Trump’s pursuit of Greenland, a semi-autonomous Danish territory, has fueled warnings about the future of NATO.
Some geopolitical and historical experts believe this has now become the lowest ebb of transatlantic relations since the Suez Crisis of 1956, when the U.S. pressured Britain, France and Israel to withdraw from their invasion of Egypt.
It was against this backdrop that Trump’s message to the Norwegian leader was made public.
“I can confirm that this is a text message that I received yesterday afternoon from President Trump,” the Norwegian leader said. He said it came in response to an initial communication from himself and Alexander Stubb, the Finnish president, in which they conveyed their “opposition to his announced tariff increases.”
Støre also pointed out that — regardless of its merits — this backlash was misdirected, as the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded by the Norwegian Nobel Committee, and not the Norwegian government.
The U.S. already has huge leeway to establish military bases on Greenland or strike deals to mine its resources.
The president says that he wants Greenland to counter what he calls a growing threat from Russia and China. Though he has personally denied it, some of his team say the Arctic island’s mineral resources are also a motiving factor.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent defended Trump’s moves during NBC News’ “Meet the Press” on Sunday, saying the president was using “the economic might of the U.S. to avoid a hot war.” He said the goal was to avoid a future “national emergency.”
Trump said late Sunday that “Denmark has been unable to do anything about” the Russian threat. “Now it is time, and it will be done!!!” in a post on Truth Social.
While Europe was reeling, Russia appeared Monday to be less aghast at Trump’s ambitions.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Trump would “go down in history” if he was successful.
“There are some experts who say that Trump will go down in history if he solves the Greenland question. Without saying whether it’s good or bad — one can hardly disagree with these experts,” Peskov said.
