It is no secret that Trump has been vigorously lobbying for the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize. This obsession is consistent with his enduring search for cult-like worship and recognition. He is still complaining about not getting an Emmy for his reality TV show, The Apprentice, and continues to claim the 2020 Presidential election was rigged and that he won. Now he brags that he is the world’s greatest peacemaker and his accomplishments deserve the Nobel Peace Prize. But do they? A factual examination of the criteria for this Peace prize matched against Trump’s performance and brand values should help answer this question.
About the Nobel Prizes and Trump
Alfred Nobel, the renowned Swedish chemist who invented dynamite, upon his death in 1896 bequeathed his fortune to create the Nobel Prize for achievements in literature, medicine, physics, economics, and chemistry, all awarded in Sweden, and for peace, awarded in Norway. Nobel defined the main criteria for the Peace prize as doing “the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies, and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.” Other key considerations are a “candidate’s commitment to nonviolent methods, sustained contributions to peace, work on human dignity and contributions to the environment.”
The Norwegian parliament appoints a committee of 5 professionals from politics and civil society, who will meet October 10, 2025, to select the winner from 338 candidates, all nominated before January 31, 2025. Past winners include Theodore Roosevelt, Martin Luther King, Mother Teresa and Barack Obama, who was then vilified by Trump.
Trump has blatantly campaigned for this Peace prize. In August he called Jens Stoltenberg, the Norwegian Finance Minister and former head of NATO to argue for this prize, then raised tariffs against Norway to 15%. Similarly Trump pressured India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, to recommend him, claiming he “solved” a recent military conflict with Pakistan. However, Modi refused, and this led to a punitive 50% tariff and pushed India to closer ties with China and Russia. Trump has asked others like Netanyahu and various loyalists to endorse him, which they have done mainly to gain favoritism.
Trump’s Questionable “Accomplishments”
Trump has taken credit for ending six different conflicts or wars, but the facts dispute these claims:
• India vs. Pakistan – Trump says he brokered a ceasefire in this 75-year-old conflict, but Modi insists that he had nothing to do with it, and the tension continues.
• Egypt and Ethiopia – Trump argues that he ended this war over water rights, but there was never any war per se.
• Azerbaijan vs. Armenia – both came to the White House to sign a peace treaty, but each side subsequently admitted it was a publicity stunt to help Trump in his quest for the peace prize, and no peace agreement was concluded
• Rwanda vs. Congo – several peace deals have been brokered over the past 30 years, the latest on June 27 at the White House, but violence continues today.
• Serbia vs. Kosovo – they agreed to economic ties under Trump’s first term, but distrust remain so high that NATO troops remain there to keep peace (no war was ever solved).
• Thailand vs. Cambodia – Trump urged talks on ongoing clashes over ownership of ancient temples, but the conflict continues.
Other Disruptive Trump Initiatives
While Trump should be applauded for trying to settle these conflicts, the actual shortcomings do not meet Nobel’s criteria for “holding peace”. These failures also reveal how most of Trump’s brand promises have not been delivered, including his guarantee to end the war in Ukraine on day one. In addition to these under-performance realities, there are several Trump actions that conflict with Nobel’s commitments to nonviolence, human dignity and a better environment:
• Enabling the complete destruction and cleansing of Gaza with over 60,000 deaths
• Trump’s acquiescence to Putin with no ceasefire nor sanctions yet to stop his onslaught
• The termination of USAID, which addresses the root causes of instability and poverty, and could lead to an estimated 14 million additional deaths by 2030 (source: the Lancet, a British medical journal)
• Threats to use military force to take over Greenland, the Panama Canal Zone, and Canada.
• Trump suppresses factual intelligence and dismisses evidence regarding medicine and the environment from scientific methods.
Key values for the Nobel Peace brand, such as honesty, fact and evidence, don’t fit Trump’s style or brand persona. His bullying tactics, divisive and retribution practices, and sketchy performance certainly do not support Trump’s claim that “I deserve it”. We shall see in October.
