From 1h
ago
09.45 CET
Morning
opening: 'I no longer feel obligation to think purely of peace'
Jakub
Krupa
US
president Donald Trump and senior members of his administration have repeatedly
reiterated their determination to take control of Greenland overnight, just
hours after the European leaders started frantically coordinating their
response to the US move to impose tariffs on most vocal opponents of the plan.
Overnight,
Trump said in a social media post:
“Nato
has been telling Denmark, for 20 years, that “you have to get the Russian
threat away from Greenland.” Unfortunately, Denmark has been unable to do
anything about it. Now it is time, and it will be done!!! President Donald J.
Trump”
US
treasury secretary Scott Bessent also pursued a similar line, telling NBC
broadcaster that “Europeans project weakness, US projects strength.”
“The
president believes enhanced security is not possible without Greenland being
part of the US,” he said.
In
further escalation, he also appeared to link the future of Greenland with the
continuation of the US support for Ukraine.
He said:
“The
European leaders will come around. And they will understand that they need to
be under the US security umbrella. What would happen in Ukraine if the US
pulled its support out? The whole thing would collapse.”
The issue
of Greenland’s future will continue to dominate the news agenda today, as the
Europeans coordinate their next steps ahead of this week’s extraordinary EU
summit, expected on Thursday. UK prime minister Keir Starmer is also expected
to wade in, with a special emergency press conference convened for this
morning.
Later
today, the Danish and Greenlandic ministers will also meet with Nato’s
secretary general Mark Rutte, who has been one of Trump’s closest European
partners.
But even
being the extremely diplomatic (or sycophantic, if you ask his critics) and
glass-half-full kind of person, the Dutchman couldn’t strike a particularly
positive tone after his Sunday night call with Trump, saying in a terse readout
that he “spoke with @POTUS regarding the security situation in Greenland and
the Arctic. We will continue working on this, and I look forward to seeing him
in Davos later this week.”
And yet…
Perhaps
the most explosive revelation this morning comes from another direction, first
reported by PBS journalist Nick Schifrin, and later widely reported in Europe.
Over the
weekend, Trump sent a letter to Norway’s prime minister Jonas Gahr Støre
telling him that “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.”
(Norway
doesn’t decide the Nobel Peace Prize, mind you. It’s an independent committee
based in Oslo, not controlled by the Norwegian state.)
He added,
magnanimously,
“although [thinking about peace] will always be predominant, but [I] can now
think about what is good and proper for the United States of America.”
Trump
then doubled down on his threat against Denmark over Greenland, saying:
“Denmark
cannot protect that land from Russia or China, and why do they have a ‘right of
ownership’ anyway? There are no written documents, it’s only that a boat landed
there hundreds of years ago, but we had boats landing there, also. I have done
more for Nato than any other person since its founding, and now, Nato should do
something for the United States. The World is not secure unless we have
Complete and Total Control of Greenland. Thank you! President DJT”
Amusingly,
the Norwegian PM has confirmed the authenticity of the letter to VG newspaper,
saying it came in a response to his and Finnish president Alexander Stubb’s
earlier message to Trump.
It’s
going to be a crazy day today, so brace. I will bring you all the latest here.
It’s
Monday, 19 January 2026, it’s Jakub Krupa here, and this is Europe Live.
Good
morning.
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