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Jan. 19 (UPI) — President Donald Trump told European leaders that one reason he has ramped up his push for the United States to acquire Greenland is because he was not awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Trump sent a text to Norway’s prime minister and an email to several European ambassadors late Sunday saying that peace is no longer his highest priority as he pursues Greenland, Denmark’s claim to which he continues to deny, the New York Times reported.

“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,” he wrote.

In a statement on Monday, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stone confirmed that he received the text from Trump, which was a response to a message he’d sent the president on behalf of himself and Alexander Stubb, the president of Finland.

“In our message to Trump, we conveyed our opposition to his announced tariff increases against Norway, Finland and select other countries,” Stone and Stubb said in their initial text. “We pointed to the need to de-escalate and proposed a telephone conversation between Trump, Stubb and myself on the same day.”

In the statement, Stone also noted that the Nobel Peace Prize is given out by an independent committee — the Norwegian Nobel Committee — and not by Norway’s government.

Since the start of the year, Trump and his administration have intensified the pursuit of Greenland to become part of the United States.

The reasoning largely has been pinned on the island being “essential” to defense of the United States and, according to Trump, the world.

Greenland is a self-governing territory of the Kingdom of Denmark, and has been for hundreds of years, and the United States long has operated a military base on the island. That base has become more strategically important as new shipping lanes have emerged nearby because of global climate change..

A high level meeting has been held between Vice President JD Vance and the Danish and Greenland foreign ministers, however they — and other leaders of NATO countries — have insisted that the United States will not acquire the country.

After the meeting, several European countries started to send troops to Greenland, prompting Trump to threaten tariffs on eight NATO nations starting Feb. 1 if they do not remove the troops and support his bid for the territory.

While Trump has said he would like to buy Greenland, he has also mused lately on the possibility of taking it by military force.

When asked by NBC News how far he would go to acquire the territory and whether he would use force, Trump said “no comment.”