Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado gave Trump her 2025 Noebl Peace Prize medal last week, claiming "he deserves it" for his raid that resulted in the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. The president publicly campaigned to receive the Nobel Peace Prize prior to announcing the brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, with with Nobel Committee Chair Jørgen Watne Frydnes claiming that Machado, had already been selected on October 6, two days before his announcement of the peace deal in the Middle East.

“In the long history of the Nobel Peace Prize, I think this committee has seen many types of campaign, media attention,” Frydnes said, without naming Trump, via the New York Post. “We receive thousands and thousands of letters every year of people wanting to say what, for them, leads to peace."

“This committee sits in a room filled with the portraits of all laureates and that room is filled with both courage and integrity. So we base only our decision on the work and the will of Alfred Nobel,” he added.

Earlier this month, Karoline Leavitt confirmed in a statement to CNN that Trump was "discussing a range of options" to acquire Greenland and hadn't ruled out the use of military in doing so.

“President Trump has made it well known that acquiring Greenland is a national security priority of the United States, and it’s vital to deter our adversaries in the Arctic region,” Leavitt said. “The President and his team are discussing a range of options to pursue this important foreign policy goal, and of course, utilizing the U.S. Military is always an option at the Commander in Chief’s disposal.”

Leavitt's statement followed Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who told lawmakers that the Trump administration was considering buying Greenland while downplaying concerns about potential military intervention this week, two sources with knowledge of the situation confirmed to CNN. Trump has long had aspirations related to acquiring Greenland, specifically early in his second administration, and officials reportedly continued to discuss the situation behind the scenes, despite it not being mentioned as frequent publicly in recent months.

The State Department reportedly provided analysis of untapped resources in Greenland at the request of Rubio's team, which included rare earths, a source with knowledge of the situation confirmed to CNN. Trump has since revamped interest in expansionist foreign policy in the days following the United States' capture of Maduro.

“We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on January 4, one day after Maduro was captured.

Simon Conway