January 19, 2026
This thing with Greenland is really escalating.
Over the weekend there was a bunch of back and forth between President Trump and the Europeans and our NATO allies, then there were more tariff threats –and I will get into all of that — but first – there is this fascinating exchange that sheds more light on *why* president trump has insisted the United States must own Greenland.
And this isn’t made up – it’s not fake — the prime minister of Norway confirmed the words Trump texted and I’m going to share with you are real. In this statement Norway’s PM said he and the president of Finland were texting with President Trump just yesterday. They wanted to express their opposition to Trump’s plan to add another 10% tariff on any country – friend or foe – that opposes Trump’s plan to take Greenland from Demark on February 1st. Trump then said if the opposition continues and there is no deal on Greenland that tariff would increase to 25% on June first.
Trump responded to the text from Norway and Finland with “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 can not 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.”
Ok – there’s a lot in there. But I want to point to the most striking part of this message – clearly written in black and white about why trump is doing this. He straight up said to the leader of Norway – your country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace prize so he no longer feels an obligation to think purely of peace. Now – the facts are this. There is no legal or constitutional justification for the United States using any kind of military or retaliatory force especially against our NATO allies to take a land mass from another NATO ally because the president of the United States is upset about not winning a prize….regardless of how many wars that president claims to have ended. The constitution does not say the commander and chief can use the United States military in that way. That is an objective fact. It does not exist anywhere in text of the United States constitution. And speaking of that prize – the prime minister of Norway wrote in his statement today – “as regards the Nobel Peace prize, I have clearly explained, including to president trump what is well known, the prize is awarded by an independent Nobel committee and not the Norwegian government.” So – it is unclear why president trump is taking this kind of stance when the Norwegian government had nothing to do with the Nobel Prize that he didn’t win.
Now – in that statement trump also spoke about the national security concerns he has if the United States does not own Greenland. Which he has talked about before. He said China and Russia have war ships swarming all around Greenland – which the Danish ambassador said last week was simply not true. And even if it were true – I have reported in great detail about all the ways the existing treaty with Denmark says the United States can have as many military bases it wants on Greenland to combat that very threat if it were real. On top of that Greenland is part of NATO so even if China or Russia tried to take Greenland from Denmark that would trigger article five in the NATO treaty anyway and all of NATO not just the united states would come to Greenland’s defense. So – that argument from trump– quickly starts to break down too. Trump has also talked about the critical minerals and natural resources on Greenland that he believes the u-s should have…but the same treaty gives the United States access to that stuff too.
But there’s something else interesting going on here –and it has to do with Russian and China. The big threat trump keeps talking about when it comes to Greenland. He says if the US doesn’t take Greenland – China or Russia will.
Before I tell you what Russia and China have said about this Greenland issue — you should always take their comments with a grain of salt. That said – when it comes to Greenland — China –basically is like – keep our name out your mouth. Today China’s foreign minister put out a one sentence statement saying “we urge the us to stop using the so-called ‘China threat’ as a pretext for seeking selfish gains.” And Russia? Well Russia loves this. They love the idea of the United States taking land from another country because it gives them more justification to do the same to other countries. Russia says if trump pulls this off it would be historic. And on top of that the Russians are gloating at the fact that president trump’s actions are really threatening the destroy the NATO alliance. The Russian special envoy in fact posted on social media this weekend– “collapse of the transatlantic union, finally something actually worth discussing in Davos.”
Davos is Davos Switzerland – which is the site of a major economic conference that’s happening this week…which president trump is not only attending but also speaking at…and so are all these NATO allies and European leaders. Trump will have to make these threats to their face at this event. It’s going to be very awkward. And making it even more awkward is the threat that the European Union – may use what’s called the trade bazooka against the United States….if you want to learn more about that piece of this story and how the Europeans can economically hit the united states where it hurts — I just put out a deep dive on my Substack for my paid subscribers so make sure you follow these easy steps if you want to check it out.
Read more from Trump here.
Read more from Norway’s PM here.
Read more from China here
Read more from Russia here.
