Donald Trump has not been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, and, despite his persistent claim that he “deserves the prize”, experts are not at all surprised he didn’t win.
The Peace Prize went to MarÃa Corina Machado for her tireless advocacy for democracy in Venezuela.
Asle Sveen, a historian of the award, said Mr Trump had “no chance to get the Peace Prize at all”.
MarÃa Corina Machado awarded Nobel Peace Prize
The US president claimed to have ended seven wars since he took office for the first time in 2017.
He said he deserves the prize because “nobody’s ever done that,” but admitted “perhaps they’ll find a reason not to give it to me” when asked about his chances earlier this week.
Mr Trump’s disregard for international institutions, global concerns over climate change, and his repeated lobbying for the award would have been some of the many reasons he didn’t win, according to several experts.
Alfred Nobel’s will, the award’s foundation, says the award should go to the person “who has done the most or best to advance fellowship among nations”.
Simply put, Mr Trump didn’t do that, according to Nina Graeger, director of the Peace Research Institute Oslo.
Was Trump even considered?
Yes, but Darren Kew, dean of the Joan B Kroc School of Peace Studies at the University of San Diego, said it was unlikely that the committee was going to choose him for a variety of reasons.
“First and foremost is that the period under review is 2024, though the committee itself can decide on whoever it wishes,” he told ABC News.
“And so, if it decides it wants to give it to him for his activities this year, it certainly can.”
Who decides the Nobel Peace Prize?
Barack Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in the first year of his presidency, 2009, with the committee praising his “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples”.
Dr Kew said Mr Trump did have a lot of promoters, talking up his record, particularly in relation to Gaza.
“If you look at his domestic record and his other international record, he has a lot of detractors as well,” he said.
“The committee released an unusual statement saying that it had made its decision about the peace prize on Monday (before the latest ceasefire in Gaza was announced).
“If he does not receive the award, I think it will be a message saying, ‘look, try again next year after you’ve shown more success in both of these areas’.”
Who nominated him?
Mr Trump was nominated by several prominent people within the US, as well as politicians abroad.
Most recently, and perhaps most notably, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu nominated the US president for the award.
Benjamin Netanyahu handing over a Nobel nomination letter to Donald Trump during a bilateral dinner. (Reuters: Kevin Lamarque)
Other leaders include the Rwandan Foreign Minister Olivier Nduhungirehe, Gabonese President Brice Oligui Nguema, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.
Pakistan and Cambodia both said through government statements that they would nominate Mr Trump as well.
In the US, Claudia Tenney, a Republican Congresswoman from New York, officially nominated the president for his role in the 2020 Abraham Accords, a series of agreements that normalised diplomatic ties between Israel and several Arab states.
Nominations from Mr Netanyahu and the leaders of Pakistan and Cambodia, for example, were submitted after the January 31 deadline and are therefore ineligible for this year’s prize.
ABC/Wires