To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web
browser that
supports HTML5
video
Donald Trump is celebrating his role in reaching a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas just a day before the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize is announced.
Israelis could be heard chanting ‘Nobel prize to Trump’ in Tel Aviv’s Hostage Square after the first phase of a Gaza ceasefire deal was announced.
The US president has made no secret of the fact that he is itching to be handed the world’s most prestigious award.
He claimed to have ‘ended seven un-endable wars’ since his second term during his speech at the UN in September
The Nobel committee will reveal at 10am tomorrow which individual, or group, they’ve selected out of more than 300 nominations.
What is the Nobel Peace Prize?
The Nobel Peace Prize is one of five Nobel Prizes established by wealthy industrialist Alfred Nobel in his will.
The criteria for winning the prize is vague.
The deserving individual or group should have ‘done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies, and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses’.
Not only does the recipient garner worldwide praise and recognition; they are also handed an 18 carat gold medal, a diploma, and a cheque for 11 million Swedish crowns (£860,000).
The decision makers are a five-member committee, made up mostly of retired politicians, appointed directly by the Norwegian Parliament.
Nominations close in January of the year the prize is awarded, with winner announced in October.
The award is then handed over in December at Oslo City Hall.
Who nominated Donald Trump and why does he think he should win?
The US president believes his diplomacy has earned him the Nobel Peace Prize.
At the UN General Assembly, he said that ‘everyone says that I should get the Nobel Peace Prize’.
The reason for this is his claim to have achieved peace in seven wars across the globe.
Follow Metro on WhatsApp to be the first to get all the latest news
Metro’s on Whatsapp! Join our community for breaking news and juicy stories.
He believes to have brokered peace agreements and ceasefires between Armenia and Azerbaijan, Thailand and Cambodia, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, Israel and Iran, India and Pakistan, Egypt and Ethiopia and Serbia and Kosovo.
The US leader has been nominated more than 10 times for the medal.
They’ve come from right across the world. Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the nomination back in July over Trump’s role in ending the conflict between Israel and Iran.
The governments of Pakistan and Cambodia have also put forward Trump’s name after the US pressured both countries to agree to ceasefires with India and Thailand, respectively.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has said he will nominate Trump for a Nobel Prize if he helps achieve a ceasefire in the Russia-Ukraine war.
Dr Georgios Samaras of King’s College London called the public endorsements ‘meaningless’.
He added: ‘Of course, Netanyahu wants a close relationship with the US and he knows that Trump has always been a traditional ally.’
‘Zelenskyy is doing something very similar. [It is] just meaningless.’
Who are the most controversial Nobel Peace Prize winners?
The Nobel committee has courted backlash and sometimes derision for past winners.
The one that irks Donald Trump the most is Barack Obama.
He was awarded the prize in 2009 despite having only been in office for nine months.
The Nobel secretary even later admitted that the former president’s win was a ‘mistake’.
Dr Samaras said: ‘It was way too early in his first time, it was way too premature. He hadn’t scored a foreign policy success during those months in office.’
Most controversial of all, however, was the decision to give then US secretary of state Henry Kissinger the prize in ending the Vietnam War in 1973.
He won it jointly with Vietnamese diplomat Lê Đức Thọ, who himself declined the award.
Kissinger accepted, but the New York Times dubbed it the ‘Nobel War Prize’ due to his prominent role in fuelling the conflict, including bombing of Cambodia.
Two Nobel committee members even resigned in protest at the decision.
Sometimes the committee is controversial for who they didn’t choose as their prestigious winner.
Mahatma Gandhi, the iconic symbol of non-violence in the 20th century, never won a Nobel Peace Prize despite being nominated several times.
Many critics, including even the Nobel Prize themselves, seem to accept that this oversight was a mistake
Can Trump actually win?
‘I find it very unlikely,’ Dr Samaras told Metro, ‘the deal is only a ceasefire deal. It doesn’t mean lasting peace in the Middle East.’
Although the decision is made at the ‘last minute’ by the committee, who could now be re-considering their winner, Dr Samaras said Trump’s diplomatic successes needed to be ‘tested’.
He explained: ‘It is purely hype now. These peace deals need to be assessed over time.
‘His diplomatic accomplishments can’t be considered ending wars.
‘In Palestine now, it is a very shaky deal. It will take two or three years to see if it is a success.’
‘Maybe next year, if there is a lasting peace in the Middle East, then maybe [he could win].’
The problem for Trump is that some of his other actions as US president might be judged as harming the criteria set out by Alfred Nobel.
Dr Samaras said his adminstration’s ‘aid cuts, tariffs, and attacks on his traditional allies like Canada and the EU’ might upset the committee.
Trump’s vocal desperation to win the award could also alienate the decision-makers, who want to resist pressure from outside sources.
Dr Samaras added: ‘His obsession to get the Nobel Peace Prize also is not playing out well.
‘Look at the polling market as well. He’s staying at six per cent, which means that the public also feels that he has no chance.’
Who else is nominated for the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize?
The committee does not disclose who else has been nominated, but they have revealed there are 338 candidates in with a shot.
These consist of 244 individuals and 94 organisations.
Because it is so hard to judge how the decision-makers will interpret the criteria, many just look to the bookmakers for an indication who could win.
The favourite is Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy alongside the Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
Dr Samaras believes a highly deserving, and likely, winner could be Sudan’s Emergency Response Rooms.
The volunteer-run group has played a crucial role in providing humanitarian aid during the civil war in the country.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.