Trump’s grand ambition: The war Nobel for peace

TEHRAN (Iran News) As the announcement of the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize winner approaches, a notable record of 338 nominations, including 244 individuals and 94 organizations, has been set in recent years. In this context, US President Donald Trump has launched an extensive lobbying campaign, employed controversial statements, and exerted pressure, threatening that if he does not succeed, the event would be considered a great insult to America.

Nominations for the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize:

According to the Nobel Peace Prize website, as of March 5 of this year, 338 candidates have been nominated for the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize, comprising 244 individuals and 94 organizations, reflecting a significant increase from the previous year. Statistics show that last year there were 286 nominees, with the highest number of candidates recorded in 2016 at 376.

The deadline for nominations for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize was January 31, 2025, but members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee have the authority to add more names to the list up to one month after this date.

According to a long-standing tradition of the Nobel Committee, the names of the nominees are not disclosed to the media or the nominees themselves. However, there are instances where names become public, either due to media speculation or when certain organizations and individuals announce that they have nominated a specific candidate.

The list of nominees for the Nobel Peace Prize is ultimately published 50 years after the fact, according to the Nobel Foundation’s statutes. The Nobel website has announced that the list of the winner or winners of the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize will be revealed on Friday, October 10, 2025, coinciding with the anniversary of Nobel’s death, and the award ceremony will take place on December 10 in Oslo, Norway.

But in response to the question of who can submit nominations, it can be said: thousands of people; members of governments and parliaments; current heads of state; university professors in history, social sciences, law, and philosophy; former Nobel Peace Prize winners, and others.

Who has been nominated?

While efforts have been made to keep the complete list of nominees secret, some nominators have publicly mentioned their candidates. Among the names revealed this year are the International Criminal Court, NATO, jailed Hong Kong activist Chow Hong-Tung, a Canadian human rights lawyer Irwin Cotler, and Elon Musk.

According to Reuters, Cambodia, Israel, and Pakistan have also stated that they nominated Donald Trump, the President of the United States. However, their nominations were made in the spring and summer, after the January 31 deadline, which is why they are said to be invalid for the 2025 award.

Analysts say that Trump, like his other policies, has approached the Nobel Peace Prize with a confrontational strategy.

Trump lobbying for the Nobel Peace Prize: Can he win?

Most international media emphasize that Trump is using a confrontational approach to secure the Nobel Peace Prize, just as he has with all his other policies. Trump has repeatedly stated that if he does not win, it would be a “great insult” to the United States.

According to media reports, Donald Trump, eager to win the Nobel Peace Prize, has launched an aggressive lobbying campaign behind closed doors to secure the Nobel Prize this year by any means necessary. Consequently, his promotional efforts have intensified in the days leading up to the upcoming Friday.

The aspirant for the prize stated at the United Nations General Assembly: Everyone says I should receive the Nobel Peace Prize, claiming that he and the United States never received any credit for signing the Abraham Accords, which normalized diplomatic relations between Israel and several Arab countries during his first term in 2020.

Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, who is involved in efforts to end the conflict between Russia and Ukraine and the war in Gaza, claimed during a cabinet meeting in Washington in August that the Nobel Committee should act and award the prize to its leader.

Trump has long claimed that the Nobel Committee has unfairly overlooked him and has repeatedly criticized the awarding of the prize to one of his predecessors. In October 2024, at the Detroit Economic Club, he stated, If I were Obama, they would give me the Nobel Prize in 10 seconds.

Trump claims to have ended at least six or seven wars since returning to the White House in January, including armed conflicts between India and Pakistan in May, the war between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwandan-backed rebels, and border conflicts between Thailand and Cambodia.

A longtime friend of Trump, who is managing this campaign, is working hard to help him achieve his ambition. Steve Witkoff, his special envoy to the Middle East, involved in efforts to end the Russia-Ukraine war and the Gaza conflict, stated during a cabinet meeting in Washington in August that the Nobel Committee should finally take action and award the prize to his boss.

In recent days, Trump has indirectly pressured the Nobel Foundation in front of senior US military figures, stating that he does not expect to win the prize: They give it to someone who has done nothing, claiming that such an outcome would be a great insult to America, just days before the committee’s decision is announced.

This remark came less than 24 hours after the US President announced a new effort to end the war in Gaza with a 20-point plan agreed upon with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

On Friday, Hamas, the Palestinian group that governs Gaza, agreed to release all Israeli captives captured during the October 7, 2023, operation, but stated that other aspects of Trump’s plan would be negotiable.

The issue is serious enough for Trump that, according to some informed officials, Witkoff has privately raised Trump’s proposal for the award in discussions with his European counterparts.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has also leveraged all of America’s foreign policy capabilities to drum up support for the Nobel Prize in favor of Trump.

According to media reports in July, while walking down a street in Oslo, the US President had a cold call with Jens Stoltenberg, Norway’s finance minister and former NATO Secretary-General. Norwegian government officials confirmed that the two discussed tariffs as well as the Nobel Prize. This call was initially revealed by a local newspaper in Oslo.

According to Bloomberg, Trump’s campaign lobbying has even extended into the corporate world. Albert Bourla, the CEO of Pfizer, recently praised Trump for managing Operation Warp Speed, which led the development of COVID vaccines in the US, and explicitly claimed that this effort is usually deserving of the Nobel Peace Prize.

Some media outlets have also listed six leaders from various countries who have announced Trump’s nomination for the award, including Nikol Pashinyan, the Prime Minister of Armenia; Ilham Aliyev, the President of Azerbaijan; Brice Oligo Goma, the President of Gabon; Hun Manet, the Prime Minister of Cambodia; Olivier Nduhungirehe, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Rwanda; and the government of Pakistan.

While Netanyahu is a proponent of the Nobel Peace Prize for Trump, the extensive attacks by the Israeli regime against the Palestinian people have resulted in over 67,000 deaths, the majority of whom are women and children. Additionally, the US and Europe are major arms suppliers to Israel.

Acknowledgment of political pressure

The head of the Norwegian Nobel Committee recently stated to the media that the Nobel Committee has not been subjected to any direct political pressure, but it is evident that several campaigns, both public and private, are underway. He is aware that companies have previously been hired to influence the media and individuals who believe they can impact the committee.

Trump’s campaign lobbying has even infiltrated the corporate world. Albert Bourla, the CEO of Pfizer, recently praised Trump for managing Operation Warp Speed, which led the development of COVID vaccines in the US, and openly claimed that this effort is typically deserving of the Nobel Peace Prize.

Despite all of Trump’s efforts and his promotional campaign for this award, if he does not win on October 10, historians will have to wait half a century to know whether he was ever on the final list for 2025.

Since the first awarding of this prize in 1901, a total of four US presidents have received it: Theodore Roosevelt in 1906, Woodrow Wilson in 1919, Jimmy Carter in 2002, and Barack Obama in 2009. Now, Trump believes he can aggressively obtain this award as the fifth US President.

However, Bloomberg reported that some in Norway fear Trump’s potential retaliation if he is disappointed in his quest for the Peace Prize.

105 awards, 139 winners

Since 1901, the Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded 105 times to 139 winners: 92 men, 19 women, and 28 organizations.

Regarding the Peace Prize, Alfred Nobel’s intention specifies that the prize should be awarded to the person who has done the most or the best work for promoting friendship among nations, abolishing or reducing standing armies, and organizing and promoting peace congresses.

According to the Nobel Peace Committee, in the early years of the Peace Prize, up until World War I, it was often awarded to pioneers of organized peace movements. In the interwar years, the focus shifted to active politicians seeking to promote peace, stability, and international justice through diplomacy and international agreements, but awards were also given for humanitarian efforts, such as the prize awarded to Nansen, the High Commissioner for Refugees of the League of Nations.

According to this report, since World War II, the Peace Prize has primarily been awarded for efforts in four main areas: arms control and disarmament, peace negotiations, democracy and human rights, and efforts aimed at creating a more organized and peaceful world. In the 21st century, the Nobel Committee has also accepted efforts to limit the harm caused by climate change and environmental threats resulting from human activities as part of the Peace Prize.

Conclusion

Although the Nobel Foundation states that the winner of this prize receives a medal, a diploma, and 11 million Swedish kronor (approximately $1.19 million), it is likely that global attention matters more to Trump than the other two aspects.

Trump has repeatedly claimed that he is deserving of this award, as he has ended seven wars and may also end an eighth if Israel and Hamas agree. Experts have deemed these figures to be highly exaggerated and unrealistic.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, since the onset of the Israel-Gaza war on October 7, 2023, 192 journalists have been killed, with at least 178 of them being Palestinian journalists killed by Israel.

In any case, Trump has shown significant interest and effort in receiving this award, which is why he has been nominated multiple times by himself, individuals within the US, and some foreign politicians since 2018.

An examination of some past awards reveals that they have previously been granted to individuals who faced significant criticism and protests, including the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to Aung San Suu Kyi, the former Prime Minister of Myanmar, in 1991, who remained silent regarding the widespread killings of Muslims by the military and extremist groups in her country.

The awarding of the prize by the Nobel Peace Committee in 1973 to Henry Kissinger, the then US Secretary of State, and Le Duc Tho, the leader of North Vietnamese forces, for their joint negotiations on a ceasefire and the end of US involvement in the Vietnam War, as well as the award to Barack Obama in 2009, which occurred just months after his first term began and before the increase of US  troops in Afghanistan, has widely caused anger or confusion among nations and critics.

Therefore, critics argue that the Nobel Peace Committee could take similar actions under various political pressures.

Some media outlets have even stated that these days, Norway is holding its breath. Bloomberg, when asked by one senior official, who wished to remain anonymous, about the potential reaction if the President does not win, jokingly said he is considering taking sick leave on October 10.

On the other hand, Oslo has been embroiled in tariff pressures since Trump’s rise to power. The Trump administration had previously imposed a 15% import tax on Norway as part of its global tariff program, causing discontent among Norwegians and resulting in ongoing trade negotiations with Washington.

Ultimately, some observers have speculated that the extensive political pressures and lobbying efforts by Trump may lead to 2025 being the twentieth time that the Nobel Committee does not announce a winner or winners for the Peace Prize.