Washington – Twice in the first mandate of President Donald Trump, a Norwegian legislator took a step forward to nominate him for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Now, when Christian Tybring-Gjedde observes Trump maneuver to stop the war between Ukraine and Russia, he does not see the same type of diplomatic reach that guarantees a third party.
“It is dictating terms of those that Europeans are very afraid and are really worried about what will come from this,” said Tybring-Gjedde in an interview. “At this time, I don’t think there is the possibility of a Nobel Peace Prize. But you never know. “
A peace agreement seems more difficult to achieve than at any time from Trump’s return to power. His meeting on Friday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy became dark, and Trump sailed through his counterpart for not being grateful enough for the US fire power that helped repel the invasion of Russia.
Negotiations with Ukraine seem to have collapsed for now, endangering Trump’s promise to put a quick end to war, and perhaps spoil his best opportunity to win an award that has been in his mind for years.
Four US presidents have won the Nobel Peace Prize, none called Trump. That missing piece of the curriculum meets him, the former assistants say, as was evident during their meeting in the Oval office last month with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“They will never give me a Nobel Peace Prize,” Trump said in response to a journalist’s question about the prize. “It’s a pity. I deserve it, but they will never give it to me. ”
If not, it will not be due to lack of attempt.
In the space of a few days last week, no less than three senior officials or nominees of the Trump administration presented a case for Trump to win the prize, using similar conversation points.
Without prior notice, both Mike Waltz, Trump’s National Security Advisor, and representative Elise Stefanik, the New York Republican nominated for being an ambassador to the United Nations, he told the conservative activists that Trump is a president “of La Paz” that deserves the prize.
“He will end the war in Europe. Wars will end in the Middle East, ”Waltz told the audience at the conservative political action conference.
“And you know what?” Added. “At the end of this, we will have the Nobel Peace Prize in the name of Donald J. Trump.”
The Treasury Secretary, Scott Besent, also mentioned the prize during an interview with Fox News. Without requesting, Besent said that Trump’s plan to end the conflict between Ukraine and Russia deserves honor. If “quite granted,” he added, “I think in a year I should get it from what I have seen.”
Probabilities are difficult and may depend on the details of a truce between Russia and Ukraine, if there is one.
The fears have increased in the last weeks that Trump will use his influence to end the war against the terms of Russian President Vladimir Putin. His rhetoric has become discernively more hostile to Ukraine.
Even before the angry meeting at the Oval office on Friday, he called Zelenskyy a “dictator” and suggested that Ukraine instigated the war.
Now, Trump’s anger has shed in the public’s view. While Zelenskyy sat down with folded arms, Trump and vice president JD Vance scolded him as if they were a disobedient schoolboy.
“Have you said ‘thanks’ once in this whole meeting?” Vance told Zelenskyy.
In an irritable tone, Trump told the Ukrainian leader: “You will reach an agreement or we are out. And if we are out, you will fight. I don’t think it’s pretty, but you’ll fight. But you don’t have the cards. “
At one point, Trump suggested that he had joined Putin during his first mandate about what he called a “fake witch hunt” that involve investigations on Russia’s interference in the 2016 elections.
“Let me tell you that Putin went a lot with me,” Trump said.
Subsequently, the White House canceled a press conference side by side with Trump and Zelenskyy, who told him to leave the building. He is not welcome, Trump said later in a statement, until he is “ready for peace”
If Trump forges a favorable agreement to Russia while leaving the rest of Europe vulnerable to Putin’s aggression, that could sour any possibility of winning the prize. A Pro-Russian agreement cannot be well with the Nobel Selection Committee, whose five members are appointed by the Norwegian Parliament.
“In Norway, we are bordering Russia. This is very difficult for all of us, because we are the ones who will be in danger if Russia continues to take territory, ”said Tybring-Gjedde, a member of the Norwegian Parliament that serves in the defense committees and foreign affairs.
The National Security Council did not return a request for comments for this article.
‘They will probably never give it to me’
The Nobel Peace Prize became a secondary plot of Trump’s first mandate. Sometimes it sounded captivated by the prize.
In an event by Future Farmers in Indianapolis in 2018, Trump mentioned a previous American winner who had died nine years before, Norman Borlaug, a plants scientist who had helped fight the global famine.
While praising Borlaug, he said: “Can you believe it? He won the Nobel Peace Prize. “
“They will probably never give it to me, even what I am doing in Korea, in the province of Idlib and in all these places,” Trump added. “They will probably never give it to me. Do you know why? Because they don’t want to. “
Trump had two real shots to win one at that time: his efforts to fight North Korea of nuclear weapons (which did not happen) and to normalize relations between Israel and some of his Arab neighbors (who did).
In September 2020, Tybring-Gjed of it nominated him for the Peace Agreement of the Middle East known as Abraham’s agreements, although when the winners were announced the following year, Trump was wet.
The co-man Maria Reassa and Dmitry Muratov were journalists who had exposed abuse of power in the Philippines and Russia, respectively.
Even the nomination was something that the White House chose to celebrate. The White House Press Office published a statement calling attention. By campaigning for re -election in Ohio that month, Trump complained that the press had not lent enough for the attention to the nomination, although having the name of one presented is not necessarily a rare distinction.
The list of people allowed to nominate someone is long. Quite long.
Any member of a national legislature can name someone before the Selection Committee. (Representative Claudia Tenney, RN.y., nominated Trump last year). They can also the ministers of the Cabinet and the Heads of State (the former Prime Minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe, nominated Trump for the 2019 award). And university professors. And retired university professors. And someone who serves on the board of directors of an organization who once won the prize. And anyone who advised the Nobel Committee in the past.
Since Trump made his first winning presidential campaign in 2016, an average of 323 people or groups a year has been nominated for the award. That is enough to fill the lists of six NFL teams.
Earlier this week, Trump received British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in the White House. An issue they argued was if Trump would impose tariffs to Britain.
If Starmer wants to get caught with Trump, there is an easy way to do it, said John Bolton, White House Security Advisor in Trump’s first mandate.
“People say: ‘What would you recommend that Starmer does?’ And I said I would recommend that I Nomine Trump for a Nobel Peace Prize, ”said Bolton in an interview.
Trump, he added, “is definitely obsessed with that.”
A look at some previous winners suggests that Trump would be an anomaly if chosen. He is out of tune with some of the previous winners.
In 2012, the prize went to the European Union. At his first cabinet meeting, held this week, Trump said he will soon place a 25% tariff on EU goods, an institution that, he said, “was formed to annoy the United States.”
Trump’s allies say he has reasons to bother. The last president to win the award was Barack Obama, who won it only nine months in his presidency, before having achieved any real achievement. Even Obama recognized in his acceptance speech that his achievements were “mild.”
“I think the fair question to do is that Barack Obama would have won to help end the war” between Russia and Ukraine, said Mick Mulvaney, a former chief of Cabinet of Trump’s White House, in an interview. “And I think we all know the answer to that question.”
The composition of the Nobel Selection Committee could prevent any possibility that Trump may have. The winners are not chosen according to isolated actions. The “personality” of a candidate also comes into play.
“I will only remind you that any candidate for any Nobel Prize must have given a contribution to the greatest benefit of humanity,” said Berit Reiss-Andersen, former president of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, NBC News.
The new president of the Committee, Jørgen Watne Frydnes, is also general secretary of Pen Norway, a group whose mission includes support free expression and “writers at risk.”
That is not the professional career of a magician enthusiast. Trump has faced criticism for his treatment to US journalists for reasons for freedom of expression. One of his first actions has been to prohibit the Associated Press cable service from Air Force One and certain events in which only a small group of “pool” reporters can see and ask questions.
The punishment is derived from AP’s decision to continue with the name “Gulf de México”, while noting that Trump has renamed the “Gulf of America.” The AP has filed a lawsuit to restore access.
Elite recognition
Why would Trump care about the prize? He rode power as a populist who despises the elite. However, the Nobel Peace Prize erases with the validation of elite.
That is duality. Trump can be allied with the Maga Movement, but a part of it seems to click for elite recognition. He often mentions an uncle who taught in the prestigious mit. When Pete Hegseth struggled to win the Senate confirmation, Trump replied in an interview with NBC “Meet The Press” by mentioning that Hegesh had gone to the Ivy League schools.
But envy can also play a role. Obama’s prize was a painful point for Trump, said Bolton and another former White House official of the first term.
“He is obsessed with the fact that Mr. Obama succeeded and did not,” said the former officer, speaking in a condition of anonymity to speak freely.
