On Friday morning, at a White House event ostensibly about rural health care, Donald Trump mentioned that he was prepared to use trade tariffs to impose economic penalties on countries that stand in the way of his crusade to acquire Greenland. The president made the unscripted comment in passing, however, leading to some questions as to whether he seriously intended to follow through on this or not.

Those questions were soon answered: One day after floating the threat, Trump announced that he intends to impose a new 10% tariff on goods from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Finland — countries that have long been allies of the United States — effective Feb. 1. According to the American president’s weird online declaration, the penalty will increase to 25% on June 1 unless his demands are met.

In Europe, where officials and the public have been increasingly confused about the Republican’s obsession, Trump’s latest escalation has generated accusations of betrayal, emergency meetings, growing talk of an unnecessary trade war, pointed reminders about international law, and sizable protests — including no shortage of hand-painted “Yankee, go home!” signs — in Greenland and Copenhagen.

In Washington, D.C., meanwhile, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent tried to defend the legality of Trump’s move by arguing on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” “The national emergency is avoiding a national emergency.” (Left unsaid: The American president is creating an emergency.)

But in case these circumstances didn’t seem quite ridiculous enough, Trump managed to take matters to a whole new level in a message he sent over the weekend to Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store, in which he suggested part of his Greenland crusade is rooted in his failure to win a Nobel Peace Prize.

The message, first published by PBS, read in its entirety:

Dear Jonas: 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. Denmark cannot protect that land from Russia or China, and 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, but we had boats landing there, also. 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. Thank you! President DJT

Store confirmed that he received the message, which was released to the public in accordance with the Norwegian Freedom of Information Act.

For now, let’s not dwell on the fact that Trump’s message was filled with several factual errors (he has not, for example, “stopped” eight wars). Let’s also brush past the fact that he apparently believes the Norwegian government is responsible for awarding Nobel prizes (it’s not).

Let’s instead consider the nature of the American president’s pitch: Norway hurt his feelings by failing to give him an award he wanted but did not earn, which means he no longer feels “an obligation to think purely of Peace,” and which further leads him to believe that the NATO alliance should simply let him buy an arctic island, which isn’t for sale and which does not want to be part of the United States, with money he does not have.

There’s been an ongoing conversation for quite a while about whether Trump deserves to be seen as a “mad king.” As the public digests his message to the Norwegian prime minister, it’s likely that conversation is poised to grow considerably louder.