There’s something deeply disturbing about a sentence like this, don’t you think? “I no longer feel obliged to think exclusively about peace,” Trump announces. And it is not a slip, but the explicit declaration that peace, for the tycoon, is not a value, but a currency of exchange. A missed prize, a denied revenge.
In short, according to what was reported by various international agencies, Trump wrote to the Norwegian prime minister Jonas Gahr Støre a very harsh letter after the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to María Corina Machado, leader of the Venezuelan opposition, and not to him.
A letter in which the American president claims to have “stopped eight more wars” and uses that lack of recognition as a justification for changing his approach. If he ever had a different one.
The passage is chilling for its clarity:
Considering that your country has decided not to award me the Nobel Peace Prize (…) I no longer feel obliged to think exclusively about peace.
Translated: peace is a reward and if the reward comes, then it’s fine. If it doesn’t arrive, then you can think of something else. Also to force, pressure, expansion.
And in fact the letter continues with the Greenland question. Trump claims that Denmark has no real rights to that territory, that there are no written documents, that the United States also landed there “hundreds of years ago” and that the world will not be safe until Washington has “complete and total control of Greenland”.
Nothing but peace: here we openly talk about territorial domination as an instrument of global security. A vision that smacks of colonialism rewritten in a modern key, with the rhetoric of protection to justify possession.
In a statement today, however, Stoere confirmed having received that message and said it had come in response to a short message he and the Finnish president Alexander Stubb they had sent to Trump, opposing his decision to impose tariffs on European allies on Greenland.
Norway’s position on Greenland is clear. Greenland is part of the Kingdom of Denmark, and Norway fully supports the Kingdom of Denmark on this issue, Stoere’s statement concludes.
The FIFA Award
In this context, the bizarre FIFA Peace Prize awarded to Trump at the beginning of last December inevitably comes to mind, presented in recognition of “extraordinary actions for peace and unity” and handed over solemnly during the 2026 World Cup draw, in front of the whole world.
At the time it already seemed like a political stretch. Today, in the light of this letter, it appears for what it is: a grotesque choice. Peace is not a merit to be collected, but a continuous, non-negotiable ethical duty which, however, is failing on the part of the most influential person on the planet.
FIFA, for its part, continues to defend its decision, speaking of “actions for unity” and claiming the importance of collaboration for the 2026 World Cup.
Rewarding Trump for peace while he himself considers it a revocable concession is the perfect short circuit between sport, politics and propaganda. And in fact within FIFA, as reported by the Guardian, embarrassment is growing. Some officials today speak of an “unfortunate choice”, of an “error of evaluation”, of a management left too much in the hands of President Infantino. The Nobel letter comes full circle, showing that Trump speaks not as a leader who sees peace as a historic responsibility, but as someone who uses it as a personal trophy.
In this scenario, the Nobel that was not awarded to Trump suddenly seems like the only truly coherent decision. And the FIFA award, however, remains there: an embarrassing symbol of how dangerous it is to confuse power with merit.
