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Yves here. As many know or soon will know, the winner of the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize will be announced on Friday. Trump’s embarrassing personal lobbying for it alone should be disqualifying. The article below lists some concrete grounds as to why the Nobel committee should reject Trump’s entreaties. It is disappointing that the article does not address how Trump’s particularly claims regarding achieving particular peace settlement are false or at best, grossly exaggerated. For instance, Trump did not negotiate the de-escalation between Pakistan and India over their recent attacks on each other; Modi was allegedly infuriated by Trump trying to take credit. Similarly, as any reader of the press in Suotheast Asia will know, peace has not been achieved between Thailand and Cambodia. Skirmishes continue, the underlying dispute is unresolved, and the US is not in the picture.
So if Trump manages to win, the bestowing of the award would not be a testament to his peacemaking but to his power, specifically EU members pressuring the committee to give Trump the prize so as to curry favor because Putin. And as many, including members of the commentariat, have observed, if Trump wins, it will complete the discrediting of the peace prize that started when Obama was the pick.
We’ll provide some updates after the announcement.
By Clarence Lusane. Originally published at TomDispatch
Who doesn’t know that President Donald Trump desperately wants a Nobel Peace Prize and said bitterly, “They will never give me a Nobel Peace Prize. It’s too bad. I deserve it, but they will never give it to me”?
And for once, he’s right. He won’t get one, but wrong, of course, that he deserves it. Actually, there are way more than 10 reasons why he doesn’t deserve such a prize, but as 10 is such a nice round number, let me use it.
As a political scientist who focuses on human rights, global racial justice, and social movements, I’ve given considerable thought to and conducted research on the Nobel Peace Prize. I once taught a course on the history and politics of that prize while a faculty member at American University’s School of International Service. Last year, I even spent time in Oslo at both the Nobel Peace Center museum and the Norwegian Nobel Institute, which houses many of the Nobel Peace Prize Committee’s documents, including, for example, original nomination letters that can be viewed and studied.
I was there doing research on the 1964 prize awarded to Martin Luther King Jr., and I read several of the original letters sent to the Committee nominating him. His main nomination came from the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), which sent a letter dated January 31, 1963, that arrived after the January deadline for that year. His nomination was, however, carried over to 1964 and then he won.
As it turns out, I fall into one of the categories of those who can officially make such a nomination. They include members of “parliamentary assemblies” (or the U.S. Congress), previous Nobel Peace Prize Laureates like 17-year-old Malala Yousafzai or former Vice President Al Gore, directors of peace research institutes and foreign policy institutes, members of international courts, members of the Norwegian Nobel Peace Prize Committee, and (relevant to me) university professors.
Although the Committee has never explicitly stated that such a thing is possible, I’m going to assume that I can also make an “un-nomination.” In fact, believe it or not, while there were many letters of support for Dr. King’s nomination, there were also letters asking the Committee to deny him the prize, even if most of them came from individuals ineligible to make (or unmake) a nomination.
And let me just say: I can think of no one more deserving of being un-nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize than President Donald Trump. His record of authoritarian and antidemocratic rule grows more dangerous and harmful by the day, not just for the United States but for the entire global community. And yet he has indeed been nominated by Republican sycophants in Congress who seek his favor, and global strongmen, including Gabon’s President Brice Oligui Nguema, who came to power thanks to a military coup, and Azerbaijan’s Ilham Aliyev, who has been that country’s president for 22 years. They all understand that such recommendations appeal to his need for adulation and blunt any criticisms he may have of their own behavior.
The Nobel Committee does not, in fact, release information about each year’s determination, including all the individuals or groups nominated, until 50 years later, so the only way Trump and the world would know that Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet, and others have indeed nominated him is if they publicly stated it or told him so.
Autocracy, Racism, and Lawlessness Are Not Qualifications
The award normally focuses on a nominee’s work in the previous year, which means Trump’s “peace” efforts during his first term and his time out of office won’t be considered for next year’s award. So, let’s examine his first eight months in office in 2025 and ask a basic question: What has Trump done so far this year to not deserve the award?
First, within hours of being back in office, the “peace” president pardoned and commuted the prison sentences of 1,500 insurrectionists who had rioted on his behalf on January 6, 2021. (Actually, those are 1,500 reasons for no Nobel Peace Prize right there!) Hundreds of those individuals violently attacked police officers with the goal of stopping the peaceful transfer of power to the legitimately elected Joe Biden. Rather than condemn their actions, Trump rewarded their (and his) lawlessness.
Second, in his immoral and racialized campaign against undocumented immigrants who, he claims, are “poisoning the blood of the country,” his administration has unlawfully kidnapped individuals off American streets and renditioned them to horrific gulags in El Salvador and elsewhere. Some had committed no crimes and were legally in the United States or even U.S. citizens.
Third, he shut down the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). That agency, founded in 1961, had spent decades providing humanitarian assistance to millions of people around the world. As Oxfam noted, with the elimination of USAID, “At least 23 million children stand to lose access to education, and as many as 95 million people would lose access to basic healthcare, potentially leading to more than 3 million preventable deaths per year.”
Fourth, he has deployed staff from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), as well as the National Guard and other troops in Los Angeles, Washington, D. C., Chicago, and soon, it seems, to Memphis, Tennessee, and Portland, Oregon (supposedly to protect Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities there “under siege from attack by Antifa, and other domestic terrorists”). In Los Angeles, he claimed that the city was also “under siege” by people protesting his immigration raids. In fact, it was the inhumane and violent actions of ICE under Trump’s orders that sparked resistance in Los Angeles. In Washington, he falsely and repeatedly stated that he was sending in troops to control widespread crime. That canard was cover for him to spread his anti-immigrant campaign to another “sanctuary city,” and to target the most vulnerable people there like the unhoused and scooter delivery riders. (A Washington judge did at least recently block him from speedy deportations of undocumented immigrants.)
Fifth, signaling his desire for a new imperialist era, he threatened to seize Canada, Greenland, and the Panama Canal. CNN identified at least nine lies of his as to why Canada should become this country’s 51st state, including that its citizens like the idea (they don’t); that it doesn’t allow U.S. banks to operate there (it does); and that it doesn’t “take” U.S. agricultural products (it’s second only to Mexico in purchasing such products). Trump not only declared that he wanted Greenland for “security” purposes but didn’t rule out using military force to get it. Mind you, Greenland is a self-governing territory of Denmark whose people and government have no interest whatsoever in becoming part of the U.S. Though built by the United States, the Panama Canal was ceded to Panama in a 1977 treaty signed by President Jimmy Carter and ratified by the Senate. Trump claims that the United States is not getting fair market treatment for its use. However, as one expert on the canal noted, Trump is insisting on preferential treatment and promising to take it back if he doesn’t get his way.
Sixth, in a brazen abuse of power, he demanded that Brazil stop the prosecution of his ally there, former President Jair Bolsonaro. Like Trump in 2021, Bolsonaro and his followers were unsuccessful in their violent attempt to stop a transition of power to then-elected President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva after Bolsonaro legitimately lost the 2022 election. Trump has called the trial a “witch hunt” and said he would impose a 50% tariff on Brazilian imports unless it was stopped and Bolsonaro freed.
Seventh, in another of his unconstitutional executive orders, he threatened two U.S. professors with legal penalties for working with or writing in support of the International Criminal Court (ICC). The ICC (of which the United States is not a member) prosecutes war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide, all of which have no statutes of limitation. Trump was rebuffed by two federal judges who concluded that he was violating the First Amendment right to free speech by stating that he would “impose tangible and significant consequences” on anyone supporting the ICC. It has evidently particularly upset him that the ICC has issued an arrest warrant for his partner in crime in the war on Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. About a dozen countries have stated that they would honor the warrant.
Eighth, Trump’s June bombing of three nuclear sites in Iran took place under distinctly dubious legal authority. That both lawmakers and scholars can’t even agree on whether the president flaunted the law or not suggests the carelessness of his actions when it came to legal procedures involving war. And despite Trump’s boast that he “completely and fully obliterated” Iran’s nuclear program, reports from his own intelligence agencies suggest that the program was set back only a few months. Apparently embarrassed by the truth, War Department Secretary Pete Hegseth fired Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse, who headed the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency that reported on the botched airstrikes.
Ninth, he withdrew the United States from critical international bodies, including the World Health Organization and UNESCO, as well as less well-known organizations like the Council of Europe’s European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) that works with 46 European governments and civil society organizations across the region to address issues of discrimination. I admit that the last one is a bit personal for me. From 2022 to 2025, I was the U.S.-appointed “independent expert” to that very commission and attended its meetings in Strasbourg, France. My appointment was approved by then-Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the Council of Europe. In January, I was informed that Trump was withdrawing the U.S. from its “observer” status on the commission because ECRI was not aligned with the values of the incoming administration. Sadly, that part was all too true.
Tenth, he is complicit in the genocide and famine taking place in Gaza. While his claims of ending seven wars are dubious at best, in the one conflict where he could most decisively have intervened to bring closure to it, he’s done anything but. His unholy alliance with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has meant a lot of performative concern about starvation and the tens of thousands of deaths in Gaza along with an unending supply of weapons for Israel. His insensitivity to the suffering of the people in Gaza has only been compounded by his disturbing desire to cleanse the area of Palestinians and develop what he’s called a “Riviera of the Middle East” there.
And mind you, I won’t even count President Trump’s “pathetic” groveling campaign for the Nobel Peace Prize as one of the reasons he shouldn’t get it. That seems almost self-evident. It reminds me of comedian Steven Wright’s joke: “I’d kill for a Nobel Peace Prize.” It’s impossible to imagine Nelson Mandela, Jimmy Carter, or Martin Luther King Jr. calling officials in Norway and begging for the prize as Trump recently did; or, for that matter, using his platform at the United Nations to falsely claim that “everyone says I should get the Nobel Peace Prize.” And mind you, that ludicrous claim came only weeks after his unlawful killing of multiple individuals with military strikes in the international waters of the Caribbean without due process or any legal recourse, not to speak of changing the name of the Department of Defense to the Department of War. “Everyone,” of course, meant almost nobody. A Washington Post-Ipsos poll found that 76% of Americans don’t believe that he deserves the award, including 49% of Republicans.
It’s inexplicable to me why former Secretary of State Hilary Clinton would cavalierly state that she would nominate Trump, the twice-impeached, 34-count convicted felon and adjudicated sexual abuser, for the prize if he brought a ceasefire to the war in Ukraine. By now, it should be crystal clear that Trump has no interest in Ukraine’s sovereignty, which he’s denigrated repeatedly, while proving all too willing to grant concessions to the universally recognized aggressor in that conflict, Russian President Vladimir Putin. But even if he did help broker a fair peace agreement, which the entire world (except Putin) wants as soon as possible, that shouldn’t excuse his broader autocratic behavior and agenda.
Note to Trump: The Award Must Be Earned
His authoritarian push to reshape the United States and demean all its governing, social, financial, and cultural institutions is itself a threat to peace. He continues to attack a free press, bully universities, ignore judicial orders, abuse the very principle of a separation of powers, and openly seeks to rig elections in his favor. Forget for the moment the fascism, authoritarianism, patrimonialism, retribution, bigotry, corruption, greed, mendacity, and incompetence — his one character trait that should be considered most disqualifying is his cruelty. His lust for revenge and power has brought unspeakable malice and pain to undocumented immigrants, LGBTQ families, federal workers, foreign students, and any number of individuals whom he feels have challenged him.
Trump is possibly the most unethical, petty, and vengeful president in American history. Compassion and empathy simply play no role in his character or makeup. After all, at the memorial for the assassinated Charlie Kirk, moments after his widow Erika Kirk called for forgiveness and stated that “the answer to hate is not hate,” Trump said, “I hate my opponent, and I don’t want the best for them.”
The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded to “the person who has done the most or best to advance fellowship among nations, the abolition or reduction of standing armies, and the establishment and promotion of peace congresses.” He meets none of those criteria.
Let Trump continue to whine and play the victim as he manifests his doctrine of intimidation, bribes, and palling around with authoritarians. In the not-too-distant future, history will extensively document and abhor the outrages and inhumanity of the Trump era, recording it with the same disdain and dismay that now is used for the eras of slavery and segregation, or the McCarthy years. Let’s hope that the Nobel Peace Prize never becomes another institution that Trump disgraces and diminishes.
Copyright 2025 Clarence Lusane
