Fact-checking Trump's text message to Norway’s prime minister about Nobel Peace Prize, NATO

In a fight over President Donald Trump’s quest to acquire Greenland, the president made false and misleading statements about the Nobel Peace Prize and his own peace record.

"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," Trump wrote Jan. 18 in a text message to Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre.  

Trump added, "I have done more for NATO than any other 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."

Trump made similar comments in a Jan. 20 press conference on the anniversary of his inauguration. He again inferred that the country of Norway awards the Nobel Peace Prize. "Don’t let anyone tell you that Norway doesn’t control the shots, OK? It’s in Norway!"

Trump sent the text messages to Støre the same weekend he moved to add 10% tariffs on eight European countries, including Norway, that have opposed his quest to acquire Greenland.

Here, we fact-checked Trump’s remarks.

Trump: The country of Norway "decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize."

This is inaccurate.

Støre issued a statement in response, "I have clearly explained, including to president Trump what is well known, the prize is awarded by an independent Nobel Committee and not the Norwegian Government."

Trump has long said he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize. Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who recently won the prize for her fight for democracy, gave her prize medal to Trump. But the Norwegian Nobel Committee said the award can’t be revoked, shared or transferred. 

Stein Tønnesson, Norwegian historian and former director of the Peace Research Institute Oslo who has worked for the Nobel committee as a consultant, said, "There is absolutely no truth in the claim that the government controls the prize. Trump is wrong, wrong and wrong." 

We asked the White House for Trump’s evidence that Norway awards the prize. Spokesperson Anna Kelly provided a statement that did not answer that question.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee includes five members appointed by the Norwegian Parliament. Committee members must be former politicians or civilians, not active members of parliament. 

Erik Aasheim, a spokesperson for the Norwegian Nobel Institute, which supports the Nobel Committee, told PolitiFact the committee is an independent body that operates with no government influence over its decisions.

Peter Wallensteen, a University of Notre Dame international peace researcher, told PolitiFact that committee members span the political spectrum and the committee’s funding comes from the Stockholm-based Nobel Foundation. 

"It has happened a number of times that the committee has given the prize to recipients that pursue different policies than the Norwegian government," Wallensteen said.

For example, In 2017, the committee awarded the prize to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons. That organization promotes the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which Norway has not signed.

Trump: I "stopped 8 Wars." 

This is exaggerated. 

We wrote in October that Trump had a hand in ceasefires that have recently eased conflicts between Israel and Iran, India and Pakistan, and Armenia and Azerbaijan. But these were mostly incremental accords, and some leaders dispute the extent of Trump’s role. 

Trump made notable progress by securing the Israel-Hamas ceasefire and hostage agreement, but the deal involves multiple stages, so it will take time to see if peace holds.

The other conflicts Trump referenced are between Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda, Cambodia and Thailand, Egypt and Ethiopia, and Kosovo and Serbia. 

Trump: "I have done more for NATO than any other person since its founding."

Trump went even further in a Jan. 20 Truth Social post, writing, "If I didn’t come along, there would be no NATO right now!!!" 

Trump has influenced NATO, but whether he has done more for the alliance than anyone else in decades is debatable. NATO, formally the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, was created in 1949 to provide collective security against the Soviet Union. The alliance has 32 members, including the United States.

Experts said Trump gets some credit for allies agreeing to increase their NATO spending, but pointed to other influences on NATO as well. 

Justin Logan, director of defense and foreign policy studies at the libertarian Cato Institute, said Trump "frightened the Europeans" into promising additional spending on NATO by 2035.

A White House official pointed us to the European pledge and said the U.S. spends $1 billion on the alliance, more than other countries.

Since NATO’s founding, the alliance has faced several challenges, said Barry R. Posen, a MIT professor of political science and expert on international relations.

"I do agree, however, that President Trump deserves credit for starting a long delayed and necessary rebalancing of responsibilities in the alliance," Posen said.

Logan said Russia president Vladimir Putin’s 2014 and 2022 invasions of Ukraine shook Europeans and spurred defense spending increases.

Jytte Klausen, a Brandeis University professor of international cooperation, echoed Logan, saying Trump pushed through the European deal in 2025 and deserves credit. But Russia’s war against Ukraine and concerns it would move on to attack other countries motivated the increased spending.

"On the other side of the ledger, Trump's threat to annex Greenland has made the breakup of NATO a near-possibility," Klausen said.

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