An extraordinary text message exchange between Donald Trump and Norway’s prime minister has revealed the US president no longer felt “an obligation to think purely of peace” because he didn’t get the Nobel peace prize, as he again declined to rule out seizing Greenland by force.
The disclosure of the exchange with prime minister Jonas Gahr Støre comes amid a concerted push by Trump to grab the territory, a largely self-governing part of Denmark. In recent weeks, he has said the US would take control of the Arctic island “one way or the other” and, over the weekend: “Now it is time, and it will be done!!!”
On Monday, he told NBC news he would “100%” push ahead with his plan to impose tariffs on the country’s allies, and blamed Norway for denying him the Nobel prize. “Norway totally controls it despite what they say. They like to say they have nothing to do with it, but they have everything to do with it,” he said.
The Nobel peace prize is awarded by the Norwegian Nobel committee, a five-member private body whose members – mostly retired politicians – are appointed by Norway’s parliament but whose decisions are independent of the government.
US needs ‘complete and total control’ of Greenland, says Trump
In his text message to Støre, Trump said Denmark “cannot protect” Greenland from Russia or China, adding: “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.”
The US president said he had “done more for Nato than anyone else since its founding, and now Nato should do something for the United States”. The world was “not secure unless we have complete and total control of Greenland”, he said.
European industry hits out at Trump’s ‘ludicrous’ Greenland demands
European industry has hit back at the US president’s “ludicrous demands” to hand over Greenland or face a trade war.
Bertram Kawlath, the president of the German engineering association VDMA, urged the EU to face Trump down. “If the EU gives in here, it will only encourage the US president to make the next ludicrous demand and threaten further tariffs.”
‘Make America Go Away’: spoof Maga caps soar in popularity
Red baseball caps parodying Donald Trump’s Maga hats have become a symbol of Danish and Greenlandic defiance against his threat to seize the territory.
The caps reading “Make America Go Away” – satirising Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan – have gained popularity, along with several variants on social media and at public protests, including a weekend demonstration held in freezing weather in Copenhagen.
Noem backtracks on ICE pepper spray denial in Minneapolis
Kristi Noem first denied that federal agents were using chemical agents against protesters, then after being shown video footage turned to blaming the protesters themselves, as tensions continued to run high amid the Trump administration’s surge of federal officers into Minneapolis.
Second man dies at Texas ICE detention facility in two weeks
A second man being held at a US immigration detention facility in Texas has died in two weeks, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said on Monday.
Victor Manuel Diaz, 36, originally from Nicaragua, was found “unconscious and unresponsive in his room” on 14 January at the Camp East Montana detention facility in El Paso, ICE said in a press release.
Nearly all Epstein files still unreleased a month after deadline
The law was clear: Donald Trump’s Department of Justice was required to disclose all investigative files on Jeffrey Epstein by 19 December 2025, with rare exceptions.
One month after this deadline mandated by Congress’s Epstein Files Transparency Act, however, the department has not complied with this law, prompting questions about when – and whether – authorities will ever release investigative documents about the late sex offender.
Putin invited to join Trump’s Gaza ‘board of peace’, Kremlin says
The Kremlin has announced that Vladimir Putin has been invited to join Trump’s “board of peace”, set up last week with the intention that it would oversee a ceasefire in Gaza. The Kremlin spokesperson told journalists on Monday that Russia was seeking to “clarify all the nuances” of the offer with Washington before giving its response.
What else happened today:
Bruce Springsteen used a concert to decry what he called the “Gestapo tactics” of the Trump administration’s surge of immigration officers and said the country’s founding values “have never been as endangered as they are right now”.
The actor Stellan Skarsgård has criticised Trump’s attempts to annex Greenland, calling him “a little man who got megalomania”.
Catching up? Here’s what happened on 18 January 2026.
