Trump added: «We will not forget, Norway, that you did not give us this prize». He said the Nobel Committee was «forever discredited by a handful of radical ideologues», whom he called enemies of democracy and «enemies of civilization».
The US president expressed dissatisfaction that the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay of South Africa. He called her a «mysterious figure» whom, he said, no one had ever heard of.
Pillay previously headed the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and was a judge at the International Criminal Court. The Nobel Committee explained the award as recognition of her «efforts to advance peace and international law».
Trump also said he had resolved eight conflicts and intended to end two more in the near future — with Iran and between Russia and Ukraine. In addition, he claimed credit for preventing armed conflicts between North and South Korea, Japan and North Korea, as well as China and Taiwan.
Reuters writes that Trump provided no evidence for these claims. He himself said he did not allow Iran to obtain nuclear weapons, thereby preventing a large-scale conflict in the Middle East and beyond, and added that he had saved more lives than anyone in history.
This year, 287 candidates were nominated for the prize — 208 individuals and 79 organizations — and their names are not disclosed for 50 years. In April, the director of the Norwegian Nobel Institute, Kristian Berg Harpviken, suggested that Trump could be among the nominees.
In 2025, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado for her efforts to promote democracy in Venezuela. In January 2026, she handed Trump her Nobel medal during a meeting at the White House, after which the Norwegian Nobel Committee clarified that Machado remains the laureate and that the prize cannot be revoked, split, or transferred to another person.
