Trump’s letter to Norway threatening to invade Greenland: “I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of peace”
“Insane” and “bonkers” are just some of the terms being used to describe President Trump’s letter to Norway with a demand to hand over Greenland.
President Donald Trump has reportedly sent a letter with an ominous warning to the Prime Minister of Norway, Jonas Gahr Støre, in which he said: “I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace.” In the communication, which was obtained by PBS journalist Nick Schifrin, Trump says that this new sentiment is based on the decision not to award him the Nobel Peace Prize despite “having stopped 8 Wars PLUS.”
Schifrin said in a post on X that the National Security Council has forwarded the communication to multiple European ambassadors in Washington. Trump wrote in the letter that he has “done more for NATO than any other person since its founding, and now, NATO should do something for the United States.”
Specifically, he is demanding “Complete and Total Control of Greenland,” claiming that “Denmark cannot protect that land from Russia or China,” and questioning “why do they have a ‘right of ownership’ anyway?”
He falsely states that “there are no written documents,” to back up Denmark’s sovereignty over Greenland despite the existence of the 1916 Lansing Declaration.
In the convention between the United States and Denmark for cession of the Danish West Indies, Denmark sold the Danish West Indies islands “together with the adjacent islands and rocks” to the U.S. They are now called the U.S. Virgin Islands and include Saint Croix, Saint John, and Saint Thomas.
In exchange, the U.S. government stated that it would “not object to the Danish Government extending their political and economic interests to the whole of Greenland.” In other words, giving the Scandinavian nation sovereignty over the territory Trump now covets.
Trump imposes new tariffs on European nations; Macron calls for EU to use “trade bazooka” on U.S.
Trump announced on Saturday in a Truth Social post that he would slap new tariffs on eight European nations, including Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom, which have sent contingents of troops to Greenland.
A 10% tariff is supposed to take effect on 1 February and then jump to 25% on 1 June. He said that the tariffs will stay in place until a deal is reached to transfer full ownership of Greenland to the United States.
Bloomberg reports that French President Emmanuel Macron, who has said the new tariffs are “unacceptable,” had planned to call on the EU to activate the trading bloc’s anti-coercion instrument (ACI), or “the trade bazooka” as it is known. The powerful tool that allows the EU to punish unfriendly countries for “economic blackmail” was adopted in 2023 but has never been used.
However, during an urgent meeting in Brussels on Sunday, EU leaders chose to hold off deploying the ACI for the time being. Instead, they want to prioritize dialogue and diplomacy first.
Along with the ACI, another option presented by the European Commission was reviving a 93-billion-euro ($108 bn) retaliation package targeting US products. The retaliatory countermeasure was prepared last year as trade negotiations played out between the EU and the US.
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