Trump links Greenland threats to missing out on Nobel Prize

So far, the European Union and the U.K. have held off openly wielding retaliatory tariffs in an attempt to take the heat out of the issue so that Trump won’t follow through with his threat. The president on Saturday said he would impose a 10% tariff on Feb. 1 against European countries that stand opposed to a U.S. plan to take over Greenland.

According to the Norwegian prime minister, Trump said in a text message that the world wouldn’t be secure unless the U.S. has “Complete and Total Control of Greenland" and linked his pursuit of the world’s largest island to the fact he wasn’t awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. On Monday, Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said he had responded to the message. “We pointed to the need to de-escalate," he said in a statement. The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The tempered response points to a difficult reality for European nations: America is too embedded in their collective security, both economic and militarily, for them to threaten a quick punch-back.

Behind the scenes, European officials are searching for ways to respond to the president without escalating the situation into a broader trade spat or capitulating on security in the face of his trade threats. The frantic diplomacy comes days after an attempted show of European strength, in which several nations sent troops to Greenland, appears to have badly backfired, prompting Trump to go on the offensive.

“There will be a united and clear response from Europe, and we are now preparing coordinated countermeasures with our European partners," German Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil said Monday. “We are ready to find solutions. We are extending our hand, but we are not prepared to be blackmailed."

In closed-door discussions in Brussels on Sunday evening, EU officials said the bloc has time to consider its options but can move quickly if it needs to. Diplomats from member states said after the meeting that the EU wouldn’t do anything to escalate the situation unless Trump actually went ahead and imposed tariffs.

“Our priority is to engage, not escalate," a European Commission spokesman said.

In an address to the nation on Monday morning, U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer criticized the Trump administration’s tariff threats as “completely wrong" but declined to lay out what the U.K. would do in response, saying his focus was to avoid a trade war.

Starmer, who pioneered a kowtow approach to Trump that many other European leaders copied, said his main goal was to avoid any escalation. But he warned that this was a serious moment in the trans-Atlantic relationship. “Being pragmatic does not mean being passive," he said.

The attempt to buy time comes after a mind-bending start to the year in which Trump has repeatedly claimed that the U.S. must control Greenland, either by buying it from Denmark or using military action.

Trump pledged to impose the 10% tariffs against Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the U.K., the Netherlands and Finland starting Feb. 1. The tariffs will increase to 25% on June 1 and remain in place until a deal is reached for what Trump called the “complete and total purchase" of Greenland.

On Sunday, Trump added another curveball, linking his failure to win the Nobel Peace Prize to his pursuit of Greenland.

“Considering your country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS," Trump wrote in the text message, according to Støre. “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."

Støre said he had proposed a telephone conversation between Trump, Finland’s leader and himself in response. The Norwegian prime minister added that he had told Trump that the Norwegian government has no say in who gets the peace prize.

Write to Max Colchester at Max.Colchester@wsj.com, Laurence Norman at laurence.norman@wsj.com and Kim Mackrael at kim.mackrael@wsj.com