The word “defense” seems tacky to Donald Trump, president of the United States, to refer to the department that manages his country's military machinery. The reasoning lies in the fact that it dresses much more and instills more respect among allies and enemies to call the negotiated “War Department.” “It is a much more appropriate name, given where the world is right now,” the president reasoned in September, after months mulling over the name change. So he changed it. And a few days later he said again that he wanted to be given the Nobel Peace Prize.
During his first term and so far in his second, Trump has bombed Syria, Iran, Yemen, Somalia, Libya and Afghanistan. In the first five months after his return to power, the president sent his bombers to attack targets abroad more than 500 times, as many as Joe Biden in his four years in command. according to the independent ACLED database (Armed Conflict Location & Event Data).
Still, he insists that he deserves the award. What's more, if they don't give it to you, it will seem bad. “It will be a great insult to our country, I can tell you that. I don't want it, I want the country to have it,” he said on September 30 in a rambling speech before his generals in Virginia. The same, before the UN General Assembly, after preventing the Palestinian delegation from attending in person. “Everyone says they should give it to me,” he said. Again, this week: “I don't think anyone in history has solved so many (wars), but maybe they'll find an excuse not to give it to me.”
Who is “everyone”? It is not clear, but Trump has been repeating it since at least 2018, during his first term in the White House. It is known that two far-right Norwegian politicians did so that year, to bring closer positions between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, and a Swedish parliamentarian in 2020, by mediating between Serbia and Kosovo. The ill-fated former Japanese president Shinzo Abe also did it (according to Trump), and in 2018 it was raised by the then South Korean president Moon Jae-In, due to the attempt, now abandoned, to smooth over differences between the two Koreas.
Fixation from the first mandate
The American leader's fixation with this recognition dates back to his first term (2017-2021). Trump complained that Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed — with a troubled track record — received the award in 2021 instead of him. “I saved a country (…) and I just heard that they are going to give the Nobel Prize to the head of that country. And I said, 'what, I had something to do with it? Yes, but you know, that's how things work,'” he grumbled. Before, in 2019, he had complained to the Pakistani Prime Minister, Imran Khan: “I would receive it for many things if they granted it fairly, which they do not do,” he launched.
More recently, visiting Washington this summer in the midst of the genocide in Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, wanted by the International Criminal Court, also claimed the award for Trump. “I think our teams are an extraordinary combination to meet challenges and seize opportunities,” he boasted.
Another of the great supporters of being granted the honor is the far-right Argentine president Javier Milei, very grateful for the financial rescue promised by the US. Now that the American-sponsored Gaza peace plan appears to have won the acquiescence of both Israel and Hamas, Milei has been of the first to react. “Any other leader with such achievements would have received it a long time ago,” he said.
Trump's infatuation with the award leads many international leaders to raise the issue to curry favor. The latest was the Taiwanese president, Lai Ching-te. “Without a doubt” he should receive it if he convinced China to “abandon all military aggression against Taiwan,” he said this week in a radio intervention.
The president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Felix Tshisekedi, previously spoke in similar terms. The ceasefire between his country and Rwanda, signed with US support in June, has not moved forward, and the African leader was clear in September during the UN General Assembly meeting: “If President Donald Trump puts an end to this, I will be the first to vote for him to be given the Nobel Prize.”
The latest to join the strategy has been the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, who has assured that his country will nominate Trump for the Nobel Prize if he gives them Tomahawk missiles and helps them achieve a ceasefire with Russia.
Obama yes, but not me
Although Trump complains about being denied the award that would be given to “anyone else,” what especially bothers him is that the honor has fallen to his predecessor, Barack Obama, and he is resisting it. “If my name was Obama they would have given me the Nobel Prize in 10 seconds,” he protested last year. Obama won the award in 2009, just a year after his election.
Up to five US congressmen have also supported Trump's candidacy, who in his speech at the UN once again defended his merits. “I have put an end to seven wars,” he said, putting into the same bag conflicts of all kinds, from clashes derived from the dissolution of the USSR, such as that of Azerbaijan and Armenia, to border skirmishes such as those this summer between Thailand and Cambodia, as well as the clashes between Pakistan and India, which have occurred periodically since the end of the British colony.
The Nobel rules
The rules of independent norwegian committee that awards the Nobel indicate that the merits recognized are those of the year prior to its award; That is, Trump's contributions to peace in 2025, whatever they may be, would only be considered for a candidacy in 2026. This year there are 338 candidates — 244 individuals and 94 organizations. The deadline for nominations this year was January 31, 11 days after his inauguration as US president – committee members were also able to add more names to the list during their first meeting, which this year was held on February 28.
Although the committee boasts independence —It is currently made up of a human rights defender, a foreign policy expert, two former ministers and a former Secretary of State.—, Trump does not miss the opportunity to signal to the Norwegian authorities that the matter interests him. He Financial Times In a report this Wednesday, sources from that country are quoted as saying that he did so. in at least one telephone conversation with the Minister of Finance and former Secretary General of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg. All in all, the general opinion among experts is that Trump's chances are minimal.