Donald Trump has made no secret of his desire to win a Nobel Peace Prize to burnish his already distinguished legacy as U.S. president, and a lasting peace that ends the war in Gaza could be a consideration for the committee that selects the laureate.
A spokesman for a British betting agency said Newsweek that the chances of Trump winning the 2025 Peace Prize, announced Friday morning, have improved significantly in recent hours, given the frantic activity that led to the announcement of the first phase of a ceasefire agreement to end the two-year war between Israel and Hamas.
It may be that the cliché “a fool and his money are easily separated” may be true.
A spokesman for the Norwegian Nobel Institute confirmed to the news organization Agence France-Presse that the committee’s last meeting took place on Monday. This meeting was the culmination of a process that selected 338 nominees this year.
Kristian Berg Harpviken, the secretary of the Nobel Committee, confirmed to Reuters last month that “a specific peace process” or “a new type of international agreement that is under development or has recently been adopted” were the types of things being considered.
But there is one problematic detail for Trump: the nomination deadline ended on January 31, just days after he took office for his second, non-consecutive term as president.
Scott Lucas, professor of international politics at University College Dublin, says the US-proposed ceasefire plan is welcome but many details still need to be fleshed out, including disarmament, restoring aid and security arrangements.
The goal is to become the fifth presidential winner
Four U.S. presidents have previously won the Peace Prize, although Jimmy Carter received the honor decades after his service in the Oval Office.
Bill Clinton is not among the winners of the presidential election and could be a telling example of whether Trump would be a major contender for a future peace prize based on the embryonic 20-point Middle East peace plan, which required mediation from multiple countries and faces many daunting questions and obstacles, analysts say.
Famously, Clinton appeared at a 1993 Oslo Accords ceremony attended by then-Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, as well as Yasser Arafat, head of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
The 1994 Nobel Prize was awarded to Arafat, Peres and Rabin, not Clinton or any American or Norwegian diplomat who helped mediate.
Rabin was assassinated in 1995 by an Israeli extremist angered by the rapprochement, but Clinton tried again to broker peace in 2000 by bringing Israeli and Palestinian delegations to the presidential retreat at Camp David. Although it was not ultimately a successful intervention, Clinton’s years-long effort appears to have been more extensive at a granular level than what Trump or any other president could reasonably accomplish in just a few months of his term.
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When Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat met in Washington to sign the first Oslo Accords, it was intended to usher in a new era of peace and lay the foundation for a more stable Middle East and a Palestinian state. Three decades later, the agreements are remembered primarily as a failure. Nahlah Ayed and guests discuss what went wrong and what lessons the Oslo Accords hold for the future.
War-ending claims are disputed
Trump bragged about it This will end several wars this year – The number of wars fluctuated between six and seven and has led to ridicule in some circles. Some of the “wars” Trump cites appear to be outbreaks, such as with Thailand and Cambodia, and his specific role in mediating them is in some cases unclear at best.
Theo Zenou, a historian and research fellow at the Henry Jackson Society, a foreign policy and national security think tank, told The Associated Press this week that Trump’s efforts have not yet proven sustainable.
“There is a big difference between ending fighting in the short term and addressing the root causes of the conflict,” Zenou said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Monday that he had nominated US President Donald Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize following planned ceasefire talks at the White House.
One of the wars cited by Trump refers to some of the most significant hostilities in several years between rivals India and Pakistan, which took place last spring. But India’s foreign and defense ministers are reluctant to claim that Trump played a key role in their country’s withdrawal from air and ground attacks.
Still, both Pakistan and Cambodia say they have nominated Trump for the award – but those initiatives would have come after January 31. However, it is also important to note that the Peace Prize Committee does not confirm whether someone was nominated in a particular year until 50 years after the fact. Therefore, it is theoretically possible that such comments could be made without taking appropriate action, as this would have no consequences for diplomats who have long since passed away.
Benjamin Netanyahu in the summer said he would nominate TrumpBut the Israeli prime minister cited Trump’s efforts more than four years ago as primarily a U.S.-led rapprochement between Israel and a handful of Arab countries.
Governments are not the only ones who can nominate
Trump would not be the first controversial Nobel laureate, as Arafat and the former top US diplomat are on the list Henry Kissinger.
While national government representatives can put forward Trump’s name for consideration, it seems questionable whether other eligible nominators would do so.
The List of who can nominate a person or organization They include members of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, a body that has called on Israel to prevent genocide against Palestinians in a case that the US vigorously protested. The ICJ in Trump’s first term criticized his government for his attacks on the International Criminal Court.
The list also includes members of the International Board of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. The Trump administration has cut foreign and humanitarian aid this year, with significant negative impacts on women and children around the world, and it has cracked down on almost all asylum claims, with Trump already claiming in 2023 that migrants are “poisoning the blood of our country.”
“His rhetoric does not indicate a peaceful perspective,” Nina Græger, director of the Oslo Peace Research Institute, told The Associated Press this week.
One could also argue that Trump’s actions do not reflect a “peaceful perspective.” The US helped Israel bomb Iranian nuclear facilities and, more controversially, is currently carrying out attacks on boats in the Caribbean, arguing that ships carrying drugs are enemy combatants.
What is President Donald Trump’s end goal with repeated U.S. attacks on boats near Venezuela? Andrew Chang looks at the threats the Trump administration is responding to and explains why Venezuela’s ties with China could also be a factor. Images provided by Getty Images, The Canadian Press and Reuters.
A broad cross-section of university professors and directors can also suggest names for consideration. But Trump probably hasn’t shown much sympathy for this contingent, as his administration has cut research grants and repeatedly pressured U.S. post-secondary institutions over claims they’re failing to combat anti-Semitism on campus or over the number of foreign students they admit.
Finally, the five people appointed by the Norwegian Parliament to lead the current committee are led by the head of the Norwegian branch of PEN International, a group that advocates for freedom of expression.
Trump – who on Wednesday bizarrely and incomprehensibly, he bragged about “taking away freedom of speech” – was accused of suppressing speech as his government cited pro-Palestinian activism as a reason for denying visas or issuing deportations, and it responded to largely peaceful protests against his deportation plans by deploying the US military to a number of US cities.
