The Daily Populous Tuesday January 20th, 2026 night edition
Authored by inews.co.uk and submitted by theipaper

The US President is governing America like a mad king. The question is what the world is going to do about that

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When Alfred Nobel, the man who invented dynamite and who amassed a huge fortune from that invention, died in 1896, his will set up five prizes that would be awarded in his name. Four of them – the prizes in physics, chemistry, medicine and literature – would be awarded by expert committees in Nobel’s native Sweden.

The final prize, the Nobel Peace Prize, was different. For reasons Nobel never specified and which we can only guess at more than a century later, this was to be awarded by a committee appointed by the parliament of Norway, not Sweden.

Perhaps Nobel thought that Sweden, which had famously invaded most of its neighbours through its long history, wasn’t a good fit for this trophy. But for most of the 125-year history of the prize, it has proved a boon to Norway’s soft power – a reason for leaders across the world to pay attention to an otherwise largely obscure Scandinavian nation.

And then along came Donald Trump, an American president truly unlike any who had gone before him, not least for his willingness to say the quiet part out loud. It is surely the case that many if not most world leaders have quietly harboured ambitions to be awarded a Nobel – politicians are nothing if not ambitious, and the club of Nobel laureates is surely the most elite and exclusive one going.

But most politicians also have the sense to pretend that winning the prize never occurred to them, and certainly didn’t affect how they acted. Politicians are elected to represent the interests of their voters, and their countries, after all – by tradition, they at least pretend that they’re not only in it for themselves.

With a single letter to Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, though, Trump has thrown out all pretence of caring about anything other than himself – or that he understands the very basics of how the Nobel is awarded, what it’s awarded for, or even how international relations are supposed to work.

That’s a lot of work for a document that is shorter than many of Trump’s Truth Social posts, but it easily clears that bar. “Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize…”, it opens: “I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace.”

Trump then goes on to question Denmark’s claim to Greenland: “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.” Sounding like a toddler demanding a treat, Trump concludes that “Nato should do something for the United States”, presumably by giving Trump what he wants.

This may go down as a letter for the ages. It seems like the sort of transparent fake a prankster would make, but has been confirmed by multiple sources, including Støre himself, to be real. Trump seems unaware that the Norwegian government doesn’t award the Nobel Peace Prize, nor that it is awarded annually for achievements over a lifetime – Jimmy Carter, for instance, won his Nobel 21 years after the end of his presidency.

Trump’s letter reads as little more than a tantrum. Norway is not Denmark – it is even less in Norway’s gift to grant Trump Greenland than it was to give him the Nobel Peace Prize. Evidently, Trump had fixated on sending a ludicrous letter, and no one around him was either able or willing to get him to engage in a bit of basic impulse control.

Trump seems unable to lodge in his memory that the Nobel is awarded annually, nor to remember its criteria include building “fraternity between nations” – as he shatters America’s closest and most important alliances – and works “for the abolition or reduction of standing armies”, as he demands Europe and Nato engage in a mass rearmament.

The world has been ignoring the reality of Donald Trump because it is easier to do so. Republicans worry about facing political obliteration from their voters if they don’t go along with Trump’s every whim. Democrats believe they have to talk about cost of living, rather than Trump’s apparent insanity, to win elections.

World leaders try to pretend the US is the same mostly reliable ally it always has been because it is crucial to Europe’s defence and security and to our economies. Acknowledging this is no longer the case means we need to respond to the changed world. Denial is much more comforting, and much easier.

Similarly, it has been easier to pretend Trump wants Greenland for some rational reason, that it’s actually about the US’s national security – even though treaties have long allowed America to station as many troops and bases as it likes there, and it has allowed those to dwindle to just one base and a few hundred men.

Politicians and commentators across the world have embarrassed themselves trying to rationalise Trump’s plans, to show they actually make a lot of sense. They don’t. He has made that all too clear with this letter.

It can no longer be denied: Donald Trump is governing America like a mad king. The question for the world – and for America’s politicians – is what they’re going to do about that.

Gamebird8 on January 19th, 2026 at 14:02 UTC »

He will forever be inferior to Obama. And he absolutely hates it. He despises that he will never be better than someone who by his own racist beliefs should be inferior to him.

DoNotReply111 on January 19th, 2026 at 13:29 UTC »

He's so stupid it literally makes me want to dig my brains out through my ears with a fork.

I just can't anymore with this. My one year old is more stable with her moods.

theipaper on January 19th, 2026 at 13:15 UTC »

When Alfred Nobel, the man who invented dynamite and who amassed a huge fortune from that invention, died in 1896, his will set up five prizes that would be awarded in his name. Four of them – the prizes in physics, chemistry, medicine and literature – would be awarded by expert committees in Nobel’s native Sweden.

The final prize, the Nobel Peace Prize, was different. For reasons Nobel never specified and which we can only guess at more than a century later, this was to be awarded by a committee appointed by the parliament of Norway, not Sweden.

Perhaps Nobel thought that Sweden, which had famously invaded most of its neighbours through its long history, wasn’t a good fit for this trophy. But for most of the 125-year history of the prize, it has proved a boon to Norway’s soft power – a reason for leaders across the world to pay attention to an otherwise largely obscure Scandinavian nation.

And then along came Donald Trump, an American president truly unlike any who had gone before him, not least for his willingness to say the quiet part out loud. It is surely the case that many if not most world leaders have quietly harboured ambitions to be awarded a Nobel – politicians are nothing if not ambitious, and the club of Nobel laureates is surely the most elite and exclusive one going.

But most politicians also have the sense to pretend that winning the prize never occurred to them, and certainly didn’t affect how they acted. Politicians are elected to represent the interests of their voters, and their countries, after all – by tradition, they at least pretend that they’re not only in it for themselves.

With a single letter to Norwegian prime minister Jonas Gahr Støre, though, Trump has thrown out all pretence of caring about anything other than himself – or that he understands the very basics of how the Nobel is awarded, what it’s awarded for, or even how international relations are supposed to work.

That’s a lot of work for a document that is shorter than many of Trump’s Truth Social posts, but it easily clears that bar. “Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize…” it opens, “I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace.”