By Anne Applebaum
Monday, January 19, 2026
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.
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