“Earn him”
Why Trump wants to win the Nobel Peace Prize
12.03.2025 – 6:46 p.m.Reading time: 2 min.
The US President wants to end the war in Ukraine and pacify the Middle East conflict. Behind it is probably also a feud with an ex-president.
If Donald Trump should decide who receives the Nobel Peace Prize, he would probably hand it over to Donald Trump. “I earn him,” said the US President in February at a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “But they will never give it to me,” the US president restricted.
Trump has already been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize several times, among other things because of his role in the Abraham Agreement between Israel and several Arab countries in 2020. Nevertheless, he has been empty.
For his supporters, this is evidence of the alleged bias of the procurement commission, even if they continue to believe in his award. The Republican MP in the House of Representatives, Darrell Issa, recently announced that Trump was again nominated for the award. Mike Waltz believes that winning the price is only a matter of time: “In the end, the Nobel Prize will stand next to the name of Donald J. Trump,” said the National Security Advisor of the US government.
In the past, the former and reigning US President has repeatedly emphasized that he deserved the prestigious award. But why is this price so important to him?
According to John Bolton, Trump’s main feather is an actual interest in more peace in the world when it comes to the price. “What Trump fascinates is his own fame,” Bolton recently told the magazine “Stern” in an interview. Bolton was temporarily national security advisor to the US government in the first term of office of the President, but had overturned Trump.
The fixation on the Nobel Peace Prize should go far beyond the desire for recognition. Many political observers suspect that Trump sees himself in direct competition with Barack Obama. The former US President received the 2009 award for his diplomatic efforts. In 2019, Trump complained that Obama himself did not know exactly why he was considered with the prestigious award.
In fact, Obama’s win was rather a surprise, especially because he had received it in office in 2009 after only a few months. Should Trump strive for a similarly quick award, this should also explain why he is currently putting so much pressure on his peace plans in Ukraine to reach a quick agreement.
The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded for sustainable peace work. Trump’s repeated demands for geopolitical expansion of power – for example through control over Greenland or the Panama Canal – contradict the basic idea of the award.
The deadline for the Nobel Peace Prize 2025 passed at the end of January, so Trump could receive the price in 2026 at the earliest. Until then, there should be greater certainty whether his peace initiatives were successful or not.
