What did the letter say that Trump sent to jonas?
Executive summary
The message President Trump sent to Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre bluntly linked his campaign to seize “complete and total control” of Greenland to his belief that Norway’s failure to award him the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize freed him from thinking “purely of peace,” quoting, “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…” [1][2]. The text — circulated to European ambassadors and released by Norway under its freedom-of-information rules — also questioned Denmark’s sovereignty over Greenland and threatened economic pressure if allies opposed U.S. demands [3][4].
1. What the letter actually said — the key lines
The most reported sentence reads: “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,” language reproduced in multiple outlets after the text was released [1][2][5]. The note goes beyond rhetorical flourish, asserting that “The World is not secure unless we have Complete and Total Control of Greenland,” language flagged by reporters as an explicit linkage between the president’s grievance about the prize and his territorial ambitions [6][1].
2. Claims about ownership and history included in the message
Trump’s text also questioned why Denmark has a “right of ownership” over Greenland, suggesting its claim rested on ancient landings rather than written legal documents and asserting competing historical claims — lines that U.S. and European analysts immediately fact-checked as historically and legally dubious because Greenland is a long-established Danish territory and its residents are Danish citizens [3][7][8].
3. How the document was shared and its intended audience
Norway’s government released the exchange under freedom-of-information rules, and the White House National Security Council circulated the text to European ambassadors, indicating the message was intended for more than private diplomacy — it was both a direct note to Støre and a signal aimed at allied capitals and markets [4][7].
4. Context in which Trump sent the message — tariffs, NATO and Greenland tensions
The letter arrived amid a standoff in which Trump had threatened tariffs on multiple NATO allies and suggested the U.S. might press to acquire Greenland, framing the island as strategically vital and linking the prize snub to a willingness to prioritize U.S. interests over “thinking purely of peace,” a posture that prompted EU and NATO alarm about economic retaliation and alliance cohesion [1][9][10].
5. Reception and political fallout
Democrats and many European leaders branded the message “unhinged,” warning it risked damaging NATO and transatlantic cooperation; Norwegian Prime Minister Støre publicly pushed back, clarifying that the Nobel Committee — not his government — awards the prize, while European officials and markets fretted over renewed trade-war volatility [3][1][4]. Commentators from The Atlantic to Sky called the tone extraordinary and infantilizing, arguing the missive revealed an obsession with the prize and a break from diplomatic norms [7][8].
6. Limits and disputes in the reporting
The texts reproduced by Reuters, PBS and others represent the Norwegian-released exchange and the White House’s distribution, but reporting also shows disputes over some factual assertions in the letter — particularly Trump’s tally of “8 Wars PLUS” he claims to have stopped and his historical claims about Greenland — which journalists and fact-checkers say are inaccurate or unproven [1][5][9]. If the reader seeks the verbatim exchange, Norway’s FOI release and Reuters’ full transcript are the primary sources cited by multiple outlets [4].