President Donald Trump as soon as once more asserted that he deserves a Nobel Peace Prize throughout his speech on the U.N. Normal Meeting this week, claiming that “everyone” thinks he needs to be granted the distinguished honor.
Uh, who’s everybody?
Whereas Trump’s most devoted supporters would possibly nod alongside, the broader public, most of whom already disapprove of his total efficiency, is way much less satisfied.
In keeping with a latest Ipsos ballot for the Washington Submit, 76% of People consider that Trump doesn’t deserve the Nobel Peace Prize, whereas simply 22% consider that he does.
Even Republicans are divided, with 49% in help and 49% in opposition. And amongst independents, solely 14% help the thought, whereas simply 3% of Democrats say he deserves it.
A cartoon by Clay Jones.
Predictably, Trump isn’t swayed by the numbers.
“The only poll that matters to President Trump is the thousands of lives he has saved by ending decades-long conflicts around the world,” White Home deputy press secretary Anna Kelly advised Axios. “No world leader has done more to advance global stability, and while he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize many times over, he cares more about saving people from being killed.”
Throughout his U.N. speech, Trump took credit score for ending “seven unendable wars”—a declare that has been repeatedly debunked.
“What I care about is not winning prizes, it’s saving lives,” he added.
In fact, that assertion is extra aspirational than factual. Trump has lengthy sought the Nobel Prize so forcefully that one in ten People already thinks that he’s received it.
In June, whereas unveiling an settlement to resolve a decades-long battle between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Trump talked about the Nobel six instances.
“No, I won’t get a Nobel Peace Prize no matter what I do,” he whined on the time.
Trump has additionally floated the concept that brokering a peace deal in Ukraine would possibly safe the distinction. Throughout his U.N. speech, he warned that Russia would face “a very strong round of powerful tariffs” if Russian President Vladimir Putin refuses to barter.
The American public has traditionally been skeptical of awarding the Nobel to sitting presidents. In its survey, Ipsos discovered that 54% nonetheless consider that former President Barack Obama didn’t deserve the prize when he obtained it in 2009. And at the moment, a Quinnipiac College ballot discovered that simply 26% of People believed that he deserved the distinction.
Trump has dismissed that precedent.
“If I were named Obama, I would have had the Nobel Prize given to me in 10 seconds,” he mentioned final yr.
World leaders have weighed in, too. French President Emmanuel Macron instructed Tuesday that the one path for Trump to earn a Nobel could be to finish Israel’s battle in Gaza.
French President Emmanuel Macron sits beside President Donald Trump throughout a gathering with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in August.
“There is one person who can do something about it, and that is the U.S. president,” he mentioned.
However the choice in the end rests with the 5 members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, no less than three of whom have publicly criticized Trump. Chair Jorgen Watne Frydnes has highlighted Trump’s assaults on the media in the course of the 2024 election, whereas one other member mentioned that Trump “is well underway in dismantling American democracy.”
This episode is simply one other instance of a well-known sample of Trump’s: an obsession with accolades, private branding, and searching like a winner—usually on the expense of actuality.
Trump presents the Nobel as proof of his international peacemaking efforts, however the info—and public opinion—inform a really totally different story. Throughout his U.N. speech, whereas he boasted about his document on battle decision, the hole between his claims and actuality was unattainable to overlook.
The “seven unendable wars,” he claims to have ended are, in truth, nonetheless raging—or barely modified in any respect by his actions.
A Nobel Peace Prize for Trump appears unlikely—however certainly he’ll transfer on, in all probability with one other self-congratulatory parade to melt the blow.
