This summer, President Donald Trump is rolling out the red carpet for Russian President Vladimir Putin and approving of weapon sales to Israel as it commits genocide. He’s also squeezing in time to lobby aggressively for the Nobel Peace Prize.
NBC News reports that “Trump and his aides are intensifying a public campaign to snag the award, citing a string of peace deals while making a case that snubbing him again would be an injustice.” According to NBC News, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has said, unprompted, at three out of her four press briefings in July that Trump deserves the prize. In fact, she’s arguing it’s overdue: “It’s well past time that President Trump was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize,” she said at one presser. Trump has also “posted about the prize a total of seven times on his social media site since his second term began, six of them in June and July,” NBC News reports.
Trump’s foreign policy has often undermined global ‘fraternity,’ not fostered it.
The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded by a five-member body appointed by Norway’s parliament. Trump has reportedly tried to influence the group through talks with the country’s government. A Norwegian news outlet reported Thursday that Trump said that he wanted the Nobel Peace Prize during a July call with Norwegian Finance Minister Jens Stoltenberg to discuss tariffs. (According to NBC News, a White House official “said that the president and Stoltenberg did speak, but could not say that the conversation was focused on the prize. Stoltenberg confirmed in a statement that he spoke to Trump about tariffs but would not go into further details of the call.”)
Trump’s Nobel Prize campaign — and his conviction that he is entitled to one — is of course absurd. Alfred Nobel called in his will for the prize to be awarded to individuals “who shall have done 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.” How would Trump fit the bill?
There is some truth to the Trump administration’s claim that it has played a diplomatic role in mediating the end of conflict between some nations, including between India and Pakistan and between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. However in the case of India and Pakistan, India objects to Trump’s claim that he was responsible for the May ceasefire between India and Pakistan; the Indian government describes the resolution as something that was brokered bilaterally between only India and Pakistan, and has downplayed Trump’s role. And in the case of Rwanda and the DRC, Qatar also played a critical role that the Trump administration has conveniently left out of its narrative.
Even granting that the Trump administration has played a role in conflict resolution between some countries, the general spirit of Trump’s foreign policy has often undermined global “fraternity,” not fostered it. Under the banner of “America First,” Trump has shattered the bonds of economic cooperation by launching global trade wars, has reneged on pivotal agreements with our neighbors, and turned long-standing allies in Europe into rivals.
On a particularly surreal note, one of the mediation agreements that the Trump administration lists in its case for Trump as a “president of peace” is the recent ceasefire between Israel and Iran. Somehow Trump fails to mention that that ceasefire came after the U.S. and Israel bombed Iran. Moreover, those attacks were carried out during negotiations to secure a diplomatic agreement that would’ve brought more safety to the Middle East and served the end of nuclear nonproliferation. A nuclear deal with Iran now remains further from reach than ever. And on two of the biggest U.S. foreign policy issues of the day, Trump should not be asking for a pat on the back. He should be asking for forgiveness. He has supported Israel as it has killed civilians en masse in Gaza and effectively encouraged its ethnic cleansing project by talking about turning Gaza into an international beach resort. And while Trump’s efforts to help end Russia’s war on Ukraine is, in the abstract, a good thing, his extraordinary deference toward Russia during negotiations reflects a pursuit of an imperialistic, autocrat-friendly “peace” in the global order. “Trump’s desire to win the Nobel Peace Prize has become something of a joke in foreign capitals,” a former British diplomat told NBC News. “His claims to Canada, Panama, Greenland, etc., as well as tariff wars and the assaults on America’s democratic institutions, incline governments in the opposite direction.” Trump’s demand for a Nobel Peace Prize while causing global chaos and backing imperialism is yet another stroke of Orwellian audacity from our president. I hope the committee does not repeat its past mistake of pre-emptively awarding one to a U.S. president in an ill-conceived attempt at encouraging good behavior. At a time of rampant corruption and authoritarianism, it’s important for global institutions to protect their credibility and do what they can to stand for the idea of a truly peaceful and just world order.
Zeeshan Aleem is a writer for MS NOW. Sign up for his newsletter. 
