Breaking news: Greenland Standoff Deepens as Trump Links Ally Tensions to Nobel Peace Prize Grievance…,

America’s European allies stood united Monday against President Trump’s escalating campaign to take control of Greenland, accusing him of blackmail with a new threat of tariffs if they continue rejecting his bid for the U.S. to acquire the vast island. Mr. Trump, meanwhile, appeared to hint that he was still willing to use the U.S. military to achieve his objective.

In a message sent to Norway’s Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre and shared with other NATO allies, Mr. Trump said that due to the decision to award someone other than himself the Nobel Peace Prize this year, he no longer feels “an obligation to think purely of Peace,” and that he “can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America.”

Donald Trump has linked his repeated threats to seize control of Greenland to his failure to win the Nobel peace prize, as transatlantic tensions over the Arctic island escalated further and threatened to rekindle a trade war with the EU.

In an extraordinary text message sent on Sunday to the Norwegian prime minister, Jonas Gahr Støre, the US president wrote that after being snubbed for the prize, he no longer felt the need to think “purely of peace”.

“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,” he wrote, adding that the US needed “complete and total control” of Greenland.

Trump has ramped up his push to grab the island, a largely self-governing part of Denmark, in recent weeks, saying that 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 Saturday he threatened to impose from 1 February a punitive 10% tariff, increasing later to 25%, on imports from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the UK, the Netherlands and Finland unless they dropped their objections to his plan.

The dispute has plunged trade relations between the EU and the US into fresh chaos, forcing the bloc to consider retaliatory measures, and also risks unravelling the Nato transatlantic alliance that has guaranteed western security for decades.

Trump has rocked the EU and Nato by refusing to rule out military force to seize the strategically important, mineral-rich island, which is covered by many of the protections offered by the two organisations since Denmark is a member of both.

He has repeatedly said the US needs to take control of the territory for “national security”, despite the US already having a military base on the island and a bilateral agreement with Denmark allowing it to massively expand its presence there.

In a brief telephone interview with NBC on Monday, Trump declined to comment on whether he would rule out seizing Greenland by force, insisted he would “100%” push ahead with his tariff plans, 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 added.

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.

Trump campaigned hard to win last year’s prize, which was awarded to María Corina Machado, the Venezuelan opposition leader. She collected it in Oslo last month but has since dedicated it to Trump and last week gave her medal to him.

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.

Denmark’s defence minister, Troels Lund Poulsen, said on Monday he and the Greenlandic foreign minister, Vivian Motzfeldt, had discussed with the Nato secretary general, Mark Rutte, the possibility of a Nato mission in Greenland and the Arctic.

The Danish foreign minister, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, said it was “important that all of us who believe in international law speak out to show Trump you can’t go down this road”. Trump had to see that “putting pressure on us” would not work, he said.

Greenland said it was a democratic society and must be allowed to decide its own future. “We will not be pressured,” said the territory’s prime minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen. “We stand firm on dialogue, respect and international law”.

EU leaders will meet for an emergency summit in Brussels on Thursday to discuss their response, which could include a package of tariffs on €93bn (£80bn) of US imports that has been suspended for six months since the two sides reached a trade deal last year.