Trump Says He Deserves Nobel Peace Prize But Doubts He Will Be Honored

President Donald Trump said Wednesday he should be awarded the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize for ending eight wars, but said it is unlikely the Norwegian Nobel Committee will give it to him. 

“I settled eight wars, another one is coming; I got all the hostages back,” he told reporters at the White House. “I settled eight wars, and big ones.”

“I don’t know what their decision is going to be,” Trump said of the prize, which the committee is scheduled to announce Friday. “They have a reputation for maybe not giving it to people like me.”

“I was very honored to receive it indirectly last time by the recipient, who said nobody in history deserves it more than President Trump,” he said.

The recipient Trump mentioned was Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, who met him for lunch at the White House on Jan. 15 and presented him with the gold medal from the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize. She won the prize in October 2025 for her work on democracy in Venezuela. 

Trump confirmed the gift in a Truth Social post that day.

“It was my Great Honor to meet María Corina Machado, of Venezuela, today. She is a wonderful woman who has been through so much,” he wrote. “María presented me with her Nobel Peace Prize for the work I have done. Such a wonderful gesture of mutual respect. Thank you María!”

The Norwegian Nobel Institute said Jan. 9 that a prize cannot be passed on.

“Once a Nobel Prize is announced, it cannot be revoked, shared, or transferred to others,” the institute said. “The decision is final and stands for all time.” 

On Jan. 18, Trump wrote Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store about Greenland and the prize. 

“Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America,” the message said. 

In January, Trump launched the Board of Peace to oversee the Gaza peace process and other conflicts. The Trump administration brokered a ceasefire in October 2025 that halted major fighting, though the deal has not stopped Israeli military strikes in Gaza or secured the disarmament of Hamas. 

At the announcement of the 2025 prize in Oslo, Chair Jørgen Watne Frydnes was asked about calls to honor Trump, who had said it would be a “big insult” to the United States if he were passed over.

“In the long history of the Nobel Peace Prize, I think this committee has seen many types of campaign, media attention,” Frydnes said. “We receive thousands and thousands of letters every year of people wanting to say what, for them, leads to peace.” He said the committee bases “only our decision on the work and the will of Alfred Nobel.” 

The deadline for 2025 nominations was Jan. 31, days into Trump’s second term. Nominations based on his later record were eligible only for the 2026 prize. 

At the U.N. General Assembly in September 2025, Trump said he had ended seven wars. 

“I ended seven wars, and in all cases, they were raging, with countless thousands of people being killed,” he said. “This includes Cambodia and Thailand, Kosovo and Serbia, the Congo and Rwanda—a vicious, violent war that was—Pakistan and India, Israel and Iran, Egypt and Ethiopia, and Armenia and Azerbaijan.” 

He added, “No president or prime minister—and for that matter, no other country—has ever done anything close to that.” 

White House communications director Steven Cheung criticized the 2025 decision at the time. 

“The Nobel Committee proved they place politics over peace,” Cheung wrote. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu presented a nomination letter to Trump at the White House in July 2025. 

“He’s forging peace, as we speak, in one country, in one region after the other,” Netanyahu said. “So I want to present to you, Mr. President, the letter I sent to the Nobel Prize committee. It’s nominating you for the peace prize, which is well-deserved, and you should get it.” 

Pakistan nominated Trump in June 2025 and called him a “genuine peacemaker” after a U.S.-mediated ceasefire with India on May 10. 

About 70,000 Cambodian Buddhist monks said in an Aug. 19, 2025, statement that they supported Prime Minister Hun Manet’s nomination of Trump, which followed a July 28, 2025, ceasefire with Thailand.