US President Donald Trump has linked his long-running frustration over not receiving the Nobel Peace Prize to an increasingly confrontational foreign policy posture, suggesting that the absence of international recognition has freed him from the obligation to act “purely of peace”.
The claim appears in a message sent to Norway’s prime minister, Jonas Gahr Støre, and published on Monday, in which Trump directly connects the Nobel snub with a shift in tone that has included explicit threats over Greenland.
“I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of peace”
In the message, Trump writes that since Norway “decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped eight wars plus”, he no longer feels bound to prioritise peace in his decision-making.
The letter raises immediate questions, not least because the Norwegian Nobel Committee, which awards the Nobel Peace Prize, operates independently of the Norwegian government. Prime Minister Støre was quick to underline this point in a written response, stressing that the prize is not decided by the state.
Nevertheless, the message offers a rare insight into how personally Trump views the Nobel Peace Prize – and how politically he frames its denial.
A long-held obsession with the Nobel
Trump has repeatedly described himself as a “president of peace” and has long argued that his foreign policy achievements merit Nobel recognition. He has claimed credit for ending considering eight conflicts, often citing them as evidence of his suitability for the award.
Last week, the issue resurfaced dramatically when Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado visited the White House and handed Trump her 2025 Nobel Peace Prize medal, describing it as recognition of his “unique commitment to our freedom”.
Trump accepted the gesture enthusiastically, posting on social media that it was a “wonderful gesture of mutual respect”. However, the Norwegian Nobel Institute swiftly clarified that Nobel prizes cannot be transferred, shared or reassigned under the foundation’s statutes or Alfred Nobel’s will.
Machado had been awarded the prize for leading Venezuela’s opposition during an intense crackdown by the government of Nicolás Maduro, particularly following the contested 2023 presidential election.
The “eight wars” claim under scrutiny
Central to Trump’s grievance is his repeated claim that he ended eight wars. These include conflicts or tensions involving Israel and Hamas, Israel and Iran, Pakistan and India, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, Thailand and Cambodia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, Egypt and Ethiopia, and Serbia and Kosovo.
However, these assertions have been widely challenged. Some of the conflicts were brief flare-ups rather than sustained wars, while others, such as the Egypt–Ethiopia dispute over the Nile and the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, involved no active fighting at all.
Even Trump has recently acknowledged that at least one of these conflicts, the Thailand–Cambodia border dispute, resumed after he claimed credit for ending it, joking on US television that it should therefore count as “eight and a quarter wars”.
From wounded pride to hard power rhetoric
What makes the Nobel letter politically significant is not just the grievance itself, but what followed.
In recent weeks, Trump has sharply escalated his rhetoric towards Greenland, a self-governing territory within the Kingdom of Denmark. He has publicly stated that the United States would take control of the island “one way or the other”, later adding on social media: “Now it is time, and it will be done!!!”
On Saturday, Trump went further, threatening to impose a 10 percent tariff on imports from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the UK, the Netherlands and Finland from 1 February, unless the US is allowed to purchase Greenland.
The implicit link between personal recognition, geopolitical pressure and economic coercion has alarmed European capitals.
Peace as performance, power as leverage
The irony at the heart of the episode is difficult to miss. A prize intended to honour peace has become, in Trump’s framing, a justification for abandoning it.
The message to Norway suggests that peace, in Trump’s worldview, is transactional: something to be practised when rewarded, and discarded when recognition is withheld. The Greenland threats, coupled with tariff warnings, underline how quickly symbolic slights can be translated into concrete pressure.
With information from euronews & the guardian