President Donald Trump is now insisting he “doesn’t care” about the Nobel Peace Prize, a claim that would be easier to believe if he hadn’t spent years whining about the award, publicly lobbying for it, and even using it as political leverage in what critics describe as a jaw-dropping pressu re campaign tied directly to Greenland. The sudden reversal comes as Trump faces mounting backlash over escalating rhetoric about annexing Greenland, including a bizarre behind-the-scenes message to Norway’s prime minister that appeared to frame the Nobel Prize as a personal grievance and Greenland as the “solution.” U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to reporters before boarding Marine One on the South Lawn at the White House on December 13, 2025, in Washington, DC. Trump is set to travel to Baltimore, Maryland, where he is expected to attend the annual Army-Navy collegiate football game. (Photo by Tom Brenner/Getty Images) Speaking to reporters Monday, Jan. 19, as he prepared to travel to Switzerland for the World Economic Forum, Trump attempted to act indifferent about the prize he once treated like a personal birthright. “I don’t care about the Nobel Prize,” he said — before immediately launching into a self-pitying rant about being denied it. View on Threads “First of all, a very fine woman felt that I deserved it and really wanted me to have the Nobel Prize, and I appreciate that,” Trump boasted, as if trying to remind the public that admiration still exists somewhere in his orbit. But within seconds, he was right back to seething over the alleged injustice. ‘Insane’: Trump’s Go-to Intimidation Tactic on Leader Flops, He Pulls Disrespectful Move as Critics Are Shocked By Ally Who Once Called Him a ‘Bully’ “If anybody thinks that Norway doesn’t, doesn’t control the Nobel Prize, they’re just kidding,” he snapped. “They have a board, but it’s controlled by Norway.” The Nobel Committee, however, operates independently from the Norwegian government, which does not “decide” winners. Still, Trump continued to frame the Nobel outcome as if it were a personal insult delivered by the country itself, and that grievance, he now suggests, has consequences. Trump’s comments also come just days after Venezuelan democracy activist María Corina Machado, who received the Nobel Peace Prize last year, handed her prize to Trump on Jan. 15, a controversial handoff that critics say looked less like an honor and more like political bargaining amid her ongoing campaign to reshape leadership in Venezuela. Trump, predictably, treated the moment not as symbolic but as confirmation he had been robbed all along. But the real shock came not from his public posturing; it came from what he reportedly said privately. According to PBS News, which first reported the message and cited confirmation from a Norwegian government official, Trump sent a stunning text to Norway’s prime minister that did not read like diplomacy so much as a thinly veiled threat. “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,” Trump wrote. NEW: @potus letter to @jonasgahrstore links @NobelPrize to Greenland, reiterates threats, and is forwarded by the NSC staff to multiple European ambassadors in Washington. I obtained the text from multiple officials:Dear Ambassador: President Trump has asked that the…— Nick Schifrin (@nickschifrin) January 19, 2026 The message didn’t stop at bitterness — it pivoted into something much darker. “Although it will always be predominant,” he continued, “but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America.” The implication was hard to miss: if Trump doesn’t get the Nobel he believes he deserves, then peace is optional. And then came Greenland. Trump reportedly went further, questioning Denmark’s “right of ownership” over Greenland, despite Greenland being a self-governing territory within the Kingdom of Denmark, and implied the island’s sovereignty is essentially up for grabs. He then framed NATO as owing him personally and suggested Greenland should be handed over as repayment. “I have done more for NATO than any other person since its founding,” Trump claimed, before demanding: “NATO should do something for the United States.” Then he dropped the line that alarmed even seasoned foreign policy observers:“The World is not secure unless we have Complete and Total Control of Greenland.” That language was especially striking given that the United States already maintains a military presence on the island, including a long-standing base that supports U.S. operations in the Arctic region. If security were truly the issue, critics argue, Trump wouldn’t need “complete and total control,” he’d need diplomacy. Social media melted down, erupting into a firestorm of outrage over Trump’s antics. “This is insane. Trump just wrote a letter to the prime minister of Norway essentially saying ‘you didn’t give me the Nobel Peace Prize so I’m choosing to invade Greenland because of it.’ This is INSANE. It’s about to get a lot worse,” liberal political commentator Harry Sisson warned on Threads. View on Threads Fred Guttenberg, who lost his daughter, Jaime, in the Parkland, Florida, school shooting in 2018, wrote on X, “The occupant in the White House is a demented and deranged lunatic. However, we all know that and need to stop acting shocked. Everyone should redirect attention to the elected enablers in Congress who are letting this destruction of America happen. They could stop it today.” Instead, Trump has repeatedly implied he’ll take Greenland “by any means necessary,” disregarding NATO partners, Denmark, and Greenland’s own leadership, all of whom have said in plain terms: the island is not for sale. Even as Trump tries to spin himself as a reluctant peacemaker who has moved on from awards, the broader pattern suggests something else: a president who has been obsessed with the Nobel Peace Prize for years, and is now lashing out because he didn’t get it. “I really don’t care about that,” he said Monday again, attempting to sound detached, before pivoting to a sweeping, unverifiable claim. “I care about saving lives,” Trump insisted. “I think I saved tens of millions of lives.” It’s a bold statement from a President who has clawed back billions of dollars in international aid for children in developing countries, sent troops into American cities with deadly consequences, killed dozens of people in strikes on Venezuelan boats, and spent weeks now threatening to grab the semi-autonomous Danish territory of Greenland, even insinuating he’ll get it by any means necessary, while ignoring NATO allies and even Greenlanders themselves who have all said the Arctic island is not for sale. “He is totally deranged and mentally incapable of being our president. 25th Amendment Now!” one Threads user said. The President’s clearly erratic behavior and continual threats toward longtime allies have sparked speculation about his mental and physical health and his fitness for office for months now, but it seems to have reached a tipping point. Former Vice President Dick Cheney’s doctor has taken the unusual step of calling for a congressional investigation into Trump’s health, according to The Hill. Cardiologist Dr. Jonathan Reiner, a CNN medical analyst, said the text should “trigger a bipartisan congressional inquiry into presidential fitness.” This letter, and the fact that the president directed that it be distributed to other European countries, should trigger a bipartisan congressional inquiry into presidential fitness. https://t.co/HkHzsiTau4— Jonathan Reiner (@JReinerMD) January 19, 2026 ‘About to Get a Lot Worse’: Trump Sends Bizarre Text About ‘No Longer Thinking Purely of Peace’ — Now Former VP’s Doctor Is Calling for Investigation ...read more read less