Trump’s Long Quest for the Nobel Peace Prize Intensifies Ahead of 2025 Announcement

Donald Trump has never hidden his obsession with winning the Nobel Peace Prize — a prize that has eluded him through both of his presidencies. With the 2025 laureate set to be announced on Friday, Trump’s campaign to secure the honor has reached fever pitch, driven by a blend of his craving for global prestige and a deep-seated rivalry with former president Barack Obama.

Though he has occasionally conceded that he’s an unlikely candidate — “Will I get the Nobel Prize? Absolutely not. They’ll give it to some guy that didn’t do a damn thing,” he quipped in September to U.S. military officers — Trump quickly betrayed how much the award means to him. “It’d be a big insult to our country… I don’t want it, I want the country to get it. It should get it because there’s never been anything like it,” he added.

‘Seven Wars’

As the Nobel Committee’s announcement nears, Trump has stepped up his claims of peacemaking achievements, boasting at rallies and public events about “ending seven wars.” His administration has listed those conflicts as between Cambodia and Thailand, Kosovo and Serbia, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda, Pakistan and India, Israel and Iran, Egypt and Ethiopia, and Armenia and Azerbaijan.

However, many of Trump’s assertions are either exaggerated or inaccurate. Some ceasefires he claims credit for were brokered independently, and in at least one case — Iran — Trump ordered U.S. military strikes earlier this year.

Meanwhile, the two conflicts he vowed to end “within days” of taking office — the wars in Gaza and Ukraine — are still ongoing. Trump has been pushing a Gaza ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas in recent weeks, but it is almost certainly too late to influence the Nobel Committee’s decision.

Foreign leaders hoping to stay in Trump’s good graces have nonetheless boosted his bid. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and an Israeli advocacy group for Gaza hostages have both nominated Trump for the prize. Pakistan and several African leaders have also publicly endorsed his supposed peace efforts.

A Rivalry Rooted in Obama’s Nobel

For Trump, the pursuit of the peace prize is about more than prestige — it’s also personal. Ever since launching his first presidential campaign a decade ago, he has bristled at Obama’s 2009 Nobel Peace Prize win, awarded less than a year into his presidency.

“He has always put himself in opposition to Barack Obama, who famously won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009,” said Garret Martin, an international relations professor at American University.

That comparison still stings. “If I were named Obama, I would have had the Nobel Prize given to me in 10 seconds,” Trump complained last October during the campaign trail.

Three other U.S. presidents have also received the honor — Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and Jimmy Carter, the last of whom was recognized decades after leaving office. But for Trump, the ultimate validation remains out of reach — at least for now.