The prime minister of Norway says President Trump cited the Nobel Prize as a reason for not pursuing a peaceful resolution on Greenland.
AILSA CHANG, HOST:
President Trump said the fact that he did not win the Nobel Peace Prize is affecting his approach to pursuing Greenland. In a text released by the prime minister of Norway, Trump said that he no longer feels, quote, “an obligation to think purely of peace, although it will always be predominant.” NPR White House correspondent, Danielle Kurtzleben has been covering all the back and forth over the U.S. interest in the Danish territory and joins us now. Hi, Danielle.
DANIELLE KURTZLEBEN, BYLINE: Hey. Good afternoon.
CHANG: Hey. OK. So we know that President Trump has been getting more and more vocal about trying to acquire Greenland. But what more do we know about this whole text exchange with the prime minister of Norway?
KURTZLEBEN: Well, most of what we know about this we’ve learned from the Norwegian prime minister himself, Jonas Gahr. In a statement, Gahr said that he first texted Trump on behalf of himself and the president of Finland to say that they opposed some tariffs that Trump recently threatened in a phone call with him. And then Trump responded saying, as you noted, that since he, Trump, didn’t get the Nobel Peace Prize, he is no longer thinking, quote, “purely of peace.” Which is itself remarkable because Trump recently attacked Venezuela and deposed its leader in order to take control of its oil. So that kind of undermines that he’s always thinking of peace. But at any rate, the White House continues to insist that Trump is the president of peace and deserves the Nobel Peace Prize. Trump also ended his text message to the Norwegian prime minister by saying that the U.S. should control Greenland.
CHANG: I mean, this is stunning because these…
KURTZLEBEN: Yes.
CHANG: …Are longstanding allyships that Trump is threatening to upend here.
KURTZLEBEN: Absolutely. And upend them in part because he didn’t get a prize that he wanted.
CHANG: Right.
KURTZLEBEN: Now, of course, as the Norwegian prime minister said in his statement, Norway does not even give the Nobel Prizes. That’s an independent committee. And all of this comes just a few days after the latest winner of the Peace Prize, Venezuela’s María Corina Machado, gifted her prize to Trump at the White House. The Nobel Committee, meanwhile, has said the honor is not transferable.
CHANG: OK. Note to self. The tensions, though, I mean, they’re obviously high. What else are we hearing from the White House on this?
KURTZLEBEN: Well, let’s start with those tariffs I mentioned that the Norwegian prime minister was texting about. On Saturday, Trump posted that he is going to impose 10% tariffs on goods from eight European countries starting February 1, then raise that tariff to 25% in June. And Trump said he will keep those on until a deal is reached for the U.S. to acquire Greenland. Now, I’ve asked the White House, by the way, for any additional information. What law authorizes this? Is an executive order coming? We haven’t heard anything back yet. But those eight European countries have said that they stand in full solidarity with Denmark and Greenland, and they added that tariff threats undermine transatlantic cooperation.
Now, in addition, Trump made another seemingly threatening post last night that Denmark hasn’t been able to keep the Russian threat away from Greenland. And therefore, quote, “now it is time and it will be done,” which, of course, raises the question of what he means by that.
CHANG: Exactly. OK. Well, let’s look ahead. I mean, Trump is, of course, heading to Europe this week for the World Economic Forum in Davos. What are we expecting there, you think?
KURTZLEBEN: Well, the theme of Davos this year is a spirit of dialogue, which you can see as kind of grimly funny, given all this context. But we expect Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to speak Tuesday. Trump will speak Wednesday. We don’t have a full sense of what he’ll discuss, but the National Economic Council director, Kevin Hassett, has suggested he will be unveiling a housing policy plan. So we’ll see.
CHANG: All right. That is NPR’s Danielle Kurtzleben. Thank you, Danielle.
KURTZLEBEN: Thank you.
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