{"id":417607,"date":"2026-01-19T23:45:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T23:45:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/417607\/"},"modified":"2026-01-19T23:45:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T23:45:15","slug":"i-no-longer-think-purely-about-peace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/417607\/","title":{"rendered":"I no longer think purely about peace"},"content":{"rendered":"

President Trump refused to rule out military action to seize Greenland as he told Europe to \u201cfocus on Ukraine\u201d amid a chorus of opposition to his ambitions from Nato allies.<\/p>\n

The president of the United States \u00adalso pinned some of the blame for his aggressive territorial claims on Norway, accusing it in a text message to its prime minister of failing to ensure he won the Nobel peace prize.<\/p>\n

Trump is due to speak at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Wednesday. While in Switzerland, he is likely to face some tense encounters after sticking with his threat to impose tariffs on \u00adBritain and seven other allies including France and Germany from February 1.<\/p>\n

A potential route for de-escalation emerged on Monday night with a report that Trump had told Sir Keir Starmer in a phone call on Sunday that he may have been misinformed about the true purpose of the latest European and British military deployment to Greenland. Trump interpreted the move as a hostile provocation, while Starmer told Trump it was actually about addressing US security fears, Sky News reported.<\/p>\n

\"British<\/p>\n

Starmer says the UK would stand up for national interests while prioritising dialogue with allies over Greenland tensions<\/p>\n

TOLGA AKMEN\/EPA<\/p>\n

Starmer called Trump\u2019s tariff threat<\/a> against the countries that were invol\u00adved in the deployment \u201ccompletely wrong\u201d on Monday but ruled out a tit-for-tat \u00adresponse in favour of dialogue. European Union leaders will discuss a call from France for strong economic retaliation on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Asked by NBC News on Monday night whether he would use force to take Greenland, an autonomous Danish territory, Trump said: \u201cNo comment.\u201d<\/p>\n

The White House had said on January 5 that \u201cutilising the US military is always an option at the commander-in-chief\u2019s disposal\u201d.<\/p>\n

NBC asked whether Trump was serious about following through with his plans to hit the UK and other European members of Nato with tariffs unless he got his way over Greenland. <\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Nuuk, Greenland<\/p>\n

JONATHAN NACKSTRAND\/AFP\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n

\u201cI will, 100 per cent,\u201d he said. \u201cEurope ought to focus on the war with Russia and Ukraine because, frankly, you see what that\u2019s gotten them. That\u2019s what Europe should focus on \u2014 not Greenland.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump went on to justify the inclusion of Norway in his tariff threat by \u00adinsisting it could have intervened to \u00adensure he won the Nobel peace prize<\/a>. The award is decided by the Norwegian Nobel Committee, a five-member panel appointed by Norway\u2019s parliament.<\/p>\n

Jonas Gahr Store, Norway\u2019s prime minister, published a text message that Trump sent him on Sunday. \u201cConsidering 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,\u201d Trump\u2019s message said.<\/p>\n

\"US<\/p>\n

Jonas Gahr Store met President Trump last year<\/p>\n

SAUL LOEB\/AFP<\/p>\n

The president told NBC he rejected the idea that Norway\u2019s government had no influence on the prize. \u201cNorway totally controls it despite what they say. They like to say they have nothing to do with it, but they have everything to do with it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Nobel committee<\/a> is led by Jorgen Watne Frydnes, 41, a University of York graduate who is formally apolitical but well liked in Norway\u2019s ruling \u00adLabour Party. Asle Toje, 51, the vice-chairman, has conservative leanings and, in his capacity as a political \u00adanalyst, has argued that Trump needs to be treated in a more nuanced light.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Why the Arctic Circle is in everyone\u2019s sights<\/a><\/p>\n

The three remaining committee members are: Anne Enger, 76, a former leader of the Centre Party; Gry Larsen, 50, a well-connected former Labour Party politician; and Kristin Clemet, 68, a Conservative former education minister who also runs a liberal think tank.<\/p>\n

Scott Bessent, the US treasury secretary, said: \u201cThe president is looking at Greenland as a strategic asset for the United States. We are not going to outsource our hemispheric security.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Scott<\/p>\n

Starmer said on Monday<\/a> that he did not believe Trump was truly considering military action in Greenland. He insisted that he would stand up for the UK\u2019s \u201cnational interests\u201d but would continue to work closely with the US to put pressure \u201cwhere it belongs\u201d on President Putin of Russia. \u201cThe UK and the US are close allies \u2026 That relationship \u00admatters profoundly,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

A trade war was \u201cnot the right way to resolve differences within an alliance\u201d, he added. However, President Macron of France urged the EU to use its \u201cbig bazooka\u201d economic anti-coercion instrument to target the US. A list of tariffs on \u20ac93 billion worth of US goods that was drawn up during a previous trade \u00addispute last summer will kick in on February 7 \u00adunless EU member states agree to keep them frozen.<\/p>\n

Roland Lescure, the French finance minister, said: \u201cAn ally and friend for 250 years is considering using tariffs. We don\u2019t like tariffs, but we particularly dislike tariffs being used as a geopolitical weapon.\u201d<\/p>\n

Friedrich Merz, the German chancellor, openly distanced himself from Macron and warned that a trade war would hurt everyone involved.<\/p>\n

Denmark warned against \u201csending a signal of weakness\u201d to the US as the Danish army chief arrived in Greenland at the head of a \u201csubstantial\u201d contingent of troops. On a visit to London, Lars Lokke Rasmussen, the Danish foreign minister, said: \u201cIt is important that all of us who believe in international law speak out to show Trump that you cannot go down this road any further.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked to comment on Starmer\u2019s view that Trump was not serious about US military action, Anna Kelly, a White House spokeswoman, said: \u201cPresident Trump believes Greenland is a strategically important location that is critical from the standpoint of national security, and he is confident Greenlanders would be better served if protected by the United States from modern threats in the Arctic region. The president is committed to establishing long-term peace at home and abroad.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"President Trump refused to rule out military action to seize Greenland as he told Europe to \u201cfocus on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":417608,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":{"0":"post-417607","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-united-states-of-america","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","14":"tag-us","15":"tag-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=417607"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417607\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/417608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=417607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=417607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=417607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}