Just when you think global politics could not get much worse, or more ridiculous, people awoke this morning to a new theatre of the absurd. Donald Trump, the mercurial American president, has now made it clear to everyone why he really wants Greenland. Answer: Because he is in a snit over the fact he did not receive the Nobel Peace Prize last year! It was clear that he thought he had a chance, and it was also clear that several politicians who needed him onside, such as Republican congressmen and Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, were only too happy to reinforce his delusional dreams by actually nominating him.[i] Needless to say, his reaction when he learned someone else had won perfectly demonstrated that he does not take disappointment well. [ii]
Several months later it might be thought that this is water under the bridge, but no. The true extent of Trump’s infantile narcissism is now on full public display, courtesy of a message that he sent to Norwegian prime minister Jonas Gahr Støre in what must have been a moment of extreme self-pity or self-doubt, very likely written in the middle of the night as is his wont. His text was supposedly in response to a note that Store and his Finnish counterpart had sent Trump, objecting to his renewed tariff threat over Greenland. But Trump wasted little time on those details in his reply, cutting to the chase in short order. Perhaps it did not occur to him that Sore, (who noted that it is the Nobel Committee and not the government of Norway that awards these prizes, as Trump seems to believe), would release the note, which reads in part:
“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,” Trump whined.[iii]
Of course those who follow Trump’s every move would hardly be surprised that the Nobel Prize could be the cause of such fury. After all, only days earlier they had seen him beaming like a cheshire cat when Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Machado, who DID win the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize, presented it to him at a ceremony at the White House.[iv] Machado — whose party won the 2024 Venezuelan election but was forcibly prevented from taking office by the incumbent, defeated president Nicholas Maduro – had been widely expected to take over governing after Maduro was deposed. She is reported to have been hugely frustrated that Trump decided instead to allow Maduro’s lieutenant, Delcy Rodriguez, to take over the reins and Maduro’s government to remain in power in exchange for Venezuelan oil. Machado’s “gift” of the Nobel Prize is therefore widely seen as a clever bribe to encourage Trump to change his mind. Whether it will work or not is another matter, but he wasted no time in showing off his new trophy.
Meanwhile it is hardly worth commenting on the obvious factual problem with Trump’s claim to be worthy of the award, namely, that it would be difficult to think of 8 wars that Trump has even been involved with, let alone ones that he could be described as having ended. His 2024 campaign commitment to end the Russian invasion of Ukraine in a day, for example, continues to elude him after a full year, and he has even changed sides several times in terms of who he is supporting in that conflict. The Gaza crisis carries on despite initial efforts to broker a ceasefire and his apparent decision to allow the Israeli prime minister carte blanche in the area. The next stage, a “Gaza Peace Board” is a bizarre work in progress with no clear mandate. And, despite initial threats to intervene, he now appears to have been persuaded not to take action against Iran in support of protesters there. At the same time Trump has shown little or no interest in conflicts in Africa such as the civil war in Sudan, or the ongoing crisis in Haiti closer to home. It would be interesting to hear his response if a journalist were to ask him to identify his 8 success stories.
By contrast he has already forcefully and unapologetically violated international law and convention repeatedly with the murder of Venezuelan and other nationals on the high seas, and the kidnapping of the head of a sovereign state, Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela.
Domestically his commitment to peace is also very much in doubt. To begin with, he spent much of December touting the “Golden Fleet” initiative he is launching to build a massive new class of battleships.[v] Then there is his problematic decision to rename the Defence Department the War Department, and Pete Hegseth the Secretary of War, to say nothing of his ongoing threats to invoke centuries old legislation to allow him to unleash the country’s military on its own citizens. This, in turn, is his increasingly unhinged response to the chaos that has erupted in major American cities as his infamous ICE teams attack, abduct and, on occasion, murder, not only illegal immigrants but legitimate green card holders and American citizens.
Which brings us to the elephant in the room, and the new subject of Trump’s wrath. In the past few days Trump has repeatedly threatened to invade Greenland, an autonomous region of Denmark, a country tht has been a steadfast and longstanding NATO ally. Poland’s president, Donald Tusk, reflected the bemused and horrified astonishment of all his European counterparts when he declared, “I mean, a conflict or an attempt to take over the territory of a country that is a NATO member, by another NATO member state, and what’s more, it’s the United States, well, that would be the end of the world as we know it, which has guaranteed our security for decades.”[vi]
At the end of the day it is difficult to imagine that there can be more than a handful of individuals left on the planet who do not know about Trump’s tantrum over Greenland and the real reason for it. With luck, he will become a target of ridicule and mockery and be forced to abandon his ridiculous threats. At the very least, one would hope he is correct that he will never win a Nobel Peace Prize.
[i] https://globalnews.ca/news/11279365/netanyahu-nominates-trump-nobel-peace-prize/
[ii] https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/oct/11/donald-trump-nobel-peace-prize
[iii] https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy7mev35x2lo
[iv] https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5695105-trump-machado-nobel-warner-venezuela/ and https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jan/16/maria-corina-machado-giving-trump-nobel-peace-prize-medal-absurd-say-norwegian-politicians
[v] https://globalnews.ca/video/11589082/trump-announces-golden-fleet-battleships-vows-to-speed-up-shipbuilding-process
[vi] https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/france-nato-countries-send-troops-greenland-exercises-after/story?id=129241103
