Nobel Peace Prize: Could President Trump clinch much coveted award?

U.S. President Donald Trump credits himself with ending "seven wars in seven months" since he returned to the White House in January. With just a few hours to the announcement of Nobel Peace Prize, could he win the prestigious international award?

With Israel and Hamas agreeing to the first phase of a Ceasefire deal, it appears President Trump is closer to claiming responsibility for achieving peace in eight wars. 

This was one of the points of his stark criticism of the United Nations in his speech to the General Assembly in September where he said the organisation offered him no help during peace negotiations in the wars he ended. 

Trump for years has openly campaigned for the award adding to his UNGA speech, “Everyone says I should get the Nobel Peace Prize.”

The wars he says he ended include Cambodia and Thailand; Kosovo and Serbia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Rwanda, Pakistan and India, Israel and Iran, Egypt and Ethiopia, and Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Former President Barrack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009 “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples”, a win which Trump himself mocked asking why Obama received it in his first year. 

Some sources say that President Trump has called Jens Stoltenberg, Norwegian Finance Minister to lobby for the peace prize and discuss tariffs

What are Trump's chances?

Nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize end in January with the committee never disclosing when they meet to deliberate over nominations. 

Much of the nominations for Donald Trump came after that and the Nobel Committee does not reveal who was nominated for an award until 50 years later.

According to the rules, nominations can be submitted by anyone who meets the requirements, including members of national governments.

So far, there are 338 candidates for the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize, according to the organisation. Of those, 244 are individuals and 94 are organisations.

Benjamin Netanyahu, Pakistan, Thai buddhist monks, Congresswoman Claudia Tenney and a Republican congressman are all those who said they have nominated President Trump for the Prize but seeing as their nominations came in after the 2025 deadline, it may have no effect. 

Nina Graeger a director of the Peace Research Institute in Oslo suggests that President Trump will not win.

She says "On international cooperation, the Trump Administration has taken a markedly isolationist approach." adding that it goes against the specific wishes of Alfred Nobel who emphasised promotin "fraternity between nations" in his will. 

She says that Trumps approach to disarmament diverges from traditional arms control efforts citing his withdrawal from a decades long nuclear arms control treaty with Russia.

Despite applause from various quarters on achieving an agreement in the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire deal, Graeger says that his 20 point plan faces criticism for excluding Palestine from the negotiations and not addressing the root cause of the conflict.

"A lasting, sustained peace of the kind that Alfred Nobel sought to recognise remains to be seen.

If the Nobel Committee is looking for candidates who embody Alfred Nobel’s vision, it may look to others." she said

Could Trump retaliate if he doesn't win?

BBC Correspondent Mark Lowen who met the Nobel committe behind the scenes in Oslo says that the committee is "unfazed" by Trump's campaign.

He said the committe members though consisting of former politicians were fiercely independent.

Lowen added that some analysts he spoke have said that President Trump could levy new or higher tariffs against Norway if he doesn't win the Peace Prize. 

If previous allegations of President Trump reaching out to Norway’s Finance Minister and former Nato Chief Jens Stoltenberg to lobby for the prize is true, then retaliating with tariffs could become a reality. 

Trump has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in the past, but has never won.

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