WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump has resigned. nobel peace prize Friday, even as his fellow Republicans, various world leaders, and most vociferously himself, chimed in.
Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Colina Machado receives the award prize. Norway’s Nobel Committee said it praised her “for her tireless efforts to promote the democratic rights of the Venezuelan people and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy.”
The White House reacted fiercely, with communications director Stephen Chan saying Nobel committee members “proved they are putting politics before peace” by not recognizing Trump.
“He has the heart of a humanitarian and there will never be anyone like him who can move mountains with his sheer force of will,” Chong wrote on social media.
Mr. Trump, who has long coveted the prestigious award, has been outspoken about his desire for the honor throughout both presidential terms, especially recently. gain trust To end conflicts around the world. The Republican president has expressed doubts that the Nobel committee would award him the prize.
President Trump said Thursday: “They should do what they have to do. Whatever they do is fine. I know this. I didn’t do it for the sake of it. I did it because it saved a lot of lives.”
The Israeli Hostage Families Forum issued a statement Friday that continues to support Trump. “President Trump’s unprecedented accomplishments in peacebuilding over the past year speak for themselves, and no award can diminish the profound impact he has had on our families and world peace,” the newspaper said.
Trump received nominations for the award, but many of them came after the Feb. 1 deadline for the 2025 award, just a week and a half into his second term. But his name was put forward in December by Republican Rep. Claudia Tenney of New York, her office said in a statement. Abraham Accordsnormalized relations between Israel and several Arab countries in 2020.
Nevertheless, Trump and his supporters are likely to view the decision to forego the award as a deliberate insult to the American leader, especially in the wake of his involvement in Israeli and Hamas interference. first stage This brought an end to two years of tragic war.
A long history of lobbying to win awards
Jørgen Watne Fridnes, chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, said the committee had seen a variety of campaigns in its long history of awarding the Peace Prize.
“Every year we receive thousands of letters from people who want to express what peace means to them,” he said. “This committee sits in a room with portraits of all the laureates, a room filled with both courage and integrity. We therefore make decisions based solely on the achievements and will of Alfred Nobel.”
First awarded in 1901, the Peace Prize was created in part to encourage continued peace efforts. In his will, Alfred Nobel stipulated that the prize should go to “the person who has done the most or best in promoting fraternity among nations, the abolition or reduction of standing armies, and the organization and promotion of peace conferences.”
Three sitting U.S. presidents have won the Nobel Peace Prize: Theodore Roosevelt in 1906, Woodrow Wilson in 1919, and Barack Obama in 2009. Jimmy Carter won the award in 2002, a full 20 years after leaving office. Former Vice President Al Gore received this award in 2007.
Obama, a Democrat who was the focus of Trump’s attacks long before the Republican was elected, received the award early in his presidency.
“He won an award for doing nothing,” President Trump said of Obama on Thursday. “They gave it to Obama, who did nothing but destroy our country.”
war in Gaza and elsewhere
President Trump often says one reason he deserves the award is that he ended seven wars, but some of the conflicts he claims to have resolved are simply tensions, and his role in de-escalating tensions is debated.
But while there is hope that the war between Israel and Hamas will end, Israel says: Ceasefire agreement with Hamas Although it took effect on Friday, much uncertainty remains over aspects of the broader plan, including whether Hamas will disarm and who will govern Gaza. And it looks like little progress has been made Russia’s Ukraine warTrump claimed during the 2024 campaign that the conflict could end in a day — something Trump later said I made that comment as a joke..
President Trump invited Russian President Vladimir Putin to Alaska in August, but not Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. summit meeting Although he sought to make peace, he left empty-handed, and the war, started by Russia’s invasion in 2022, has intensified ever since.
While President Trump has pushed for peaceful resolution of conflicts overseas, his country remains deeply divided and politically troubled. President Trump started doing what he wanted. Largest deportation program In the history of the United States, it illegally removed immigrants from the United States. He used government tools, including the Department of Justice, to his perceived political enemy. he has sent troops to U.S. cities Over local opposition to stop crime and crack down on immigration enforcement.
He pulled the US out of the landmark Paris climate accord, dealing a blow to global efforts to combat global warming. He repeatedly imposed tariffs to intimidate other countries and companies into his will, sparking a global trade war. He declared cartels illegal combatants and asserted presidential war powers. launch a deadly attack on a boat He claimed to be transporting drugs in the Caribbean.
The complete list of nominees is confidential, but anyone who submitted a nomination is free to talk about it. Trump’s critics say his supporters, foreign leaders and others are submitting his name for the award, especially making it public, not because he deserves it, but because they see it as a way to manipulate him and maintain his favor.
Others who have formally submitted nominations for Mr. Trump as a Nobel Peace Prize nominee past this year’s deadline include Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet and the government of Pakistan, all of whom credit Mr. Trump with helping end conflicts in their respective regions.
