Trump’s Letter to Norway Should Be
the Last Straw
Will Republicans in Congress ever step
in?
Yoan Valat / AFP / Getty
January 19, 2026, 9:11 AM ET
Let me begin by quoting, in full,
a letter that the president of the United
States of America sent yesterday to the prime minister of Norway, Jonas Gahr
Støre. The text was forwarded by the White House National Security Council to
ambassadors in Washington, and was clearly intended to be widely shared. Here
it is:
Dear Jonas:
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. 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 a boat that landed
there hundreds of years ago, but we had boats landing there, also. I have done
more for NATO than any 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
One could observe many things about
this document. One is the childish grammar, including the strange
capitalizations (“Complete and Total Control”). Another is the loose grasp of
history. Donald Trump did not end eight wars. Greenland has been Danish territory
for centuries. Its residents are Danish citizens who vote in Danish elections.
There are many “written documents” establishing Danish sovereignty in
Greenland, including some signed by the United States. In his second term,
Trump has done nothing for NATO—an organization that the U.S. created and
theoretically leads, and that has only ever been used in defense of American
interests. If the European members of NATO have begun spending more on their
own defense (budgets to which the U.S. never contributed), that’s because of
the threat they feel from Russia.
Yet what matters isn’t the specific
phrases, but the overall message: Donald Trump now genuinely lives in a
different reality, one in which neither grammar nor history nor the normal
rules of human interaction now affect him. Also, he really is maniacally,
unhealthily obsessive about the Nobel Prize. The Norwegian Nobel Committee, not
the Norwegian government and certainly not the Danish government, determines
the winner of that prize. Yet Trump now not only blames Norway for failing to
give it to him, but is using it as a justification for an invasion of
Greenland.
Think about where this is leading. One
possibility, anticipated this morning by financial markets, is a damaging trade
war. Another is an American military occupation of Greenland. Try to imagine
it: The U.S. Marines arrive in Nuuk, the island’s capital. Perhaps they kill
some Danes; perhaps some American soldiers die too. And then what? If the
invaders were Russians, they would arrest all of the politicians, put gangsters
in charge, shoot people on the street for speaking Danish, change school
curricula, and carry out a fake referendum to rubber-stamp the conquest. Is
that the American plan too? If not, then what is it? This would not be the
occupation of Iraq, which was difficult enough. U.S. troops would need to force
Greenlanders, citizens of a treaty ally, to become American against their will.
For the past year, American allies
around the world have tried very hard to find a theory that explains Trump’s
behavior. Isolationism, neo-imperialism, and patrimonialism are
all words that have been thrown around. But in the end, the president himself
defeats all attempts to describe a “Trump doctrine.” He is locked into a world
of his own, determined to “win” every encounter, whether in an imaginary
competition for the Nobel Peace Prize or a protest from the mother of small
children objecting to his masked, armed paramilitary in Minneapolis. These
contests matter more to him than any long-term strategy. And of course, the
need to appear victorious matters much more than Americans’ prosperity and
well-being.
The people around Trump could find
ways to stop him, as some did in his first term, but they seem too corrupt or
too power-hungry to try. That leaves Republicans in Congress as the last
barrier. They owe it to the American people, and to the world, to stop Trump
from acting out his fantasy in Greenland and doing permanent damage to American
interests. He is at risk of alienating friends in not only Europe but also
India, whose leader he also snubbed for failing to nominate him for a Nobel Prize,
as well as South Korea, Japan, Australia. Years of careful diplomacy, billions
of dollars in trade, are now at risk because senators and representatives who
know better have refused to use the powers they have to block him. Now is the
time.
