Former President Donald Trump attained a last-minute nomination for the Nobel Peace prize by an Estonia politician Jaak Madison. Last September, Trump was nominated by Norwegian politician Christian Tybring-Gjedde. Trump’s son-in-law and advisor, Jared Kushner, has also been chosen.
“In the last 30 years, Donald Trump is the first president of the United States, who, during his tenure, has not started a war. Additionally, he signed several peace agreements in the Middle East which have helped provide stability in the region and peace,” Madison said on social media.
One of these peace agreements Madison mentioned is called the Abraham Accords, an agreement named after the Old Testament figure Abraham, whose piety is recognized by Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The agreement was signed by Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and the U.S. The declaration states: “We encourage efforts to promote interfaith and intercultural dialogue to advance a culture of peace among the three Abrahamic religions and all humanity.”
Tybring-Gjedde extolled Trump’s role in maintaining peace within other regions of the world as well. In his nomination letter, he wrote:
“Trump has played a] key role in facilitating contact between conflicting parties and … creating new dynamics in other protracted conflicts, such as the Kashmir border dispute between India and Pakistan, and the conflict between North and South Korea, as well as dealing with the nuclear capabilities of North Korea.”
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Tybring-Gjedde also praised Trump’s role in withdrawing troops from the Middle East and avoiding war. He wrote: “Indeed, Trump has broken a 39-year-old streak of American Presidents either starting a war or bringing the United States into an international armed conflict. The last president to avoid doing so was Peace Prize laureate Jimmy Carter.”
Tybring-Gjedde and another Norwegian politician, Per-Willy Amundsen, nominated Trump back in 2018 because he “had taken a huge and important step in the direction of the disarmament, peace, and reconciliation between North and South Korea,” but he did not win.
Among the others nominated and publicly announced were Jared Kushner, Alexei Navalny, Greta Thunberg, the World Health Organization (WHO), and Black Lives Matter (BLM).
Names of nominees are usually kept secret for 50 years unless the nominator chooses to reveal them. The Nobel Foundation has a fairly long list of criteria delegating people who can choose. People who have won it before and members of national assemblies or national governments are among the many groups of people who are qualified to nominate.
February 1 is the deadline for nominations, the prize winner is announced in October, and the award ceremony is in December. The award can go to any person or organization that a nominator feels is worthy.
The World Food Programme (WFP) won the 2020 award for being the largest humanitarian organization addressing hunger and food security, and back in 1991, Aung San Suu Kyi, the official in Myanmar who is currently under arrest under the military coup, won the award “for her non-violent struggle for democracy and human rights.”
When she won the award back in 1991, she was also under arrest. In 2009, shortly after he began his presidency, Barack Obama was nominated and later in the year won the award “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.”
Nobel committee member Geir Lundestad later said that they thought awarding the prize to him would help strengthen him, but admitted that it was a mistake that met with a lot of criticism within the U.S.
“The Nobel Peace Prize is not for popularity. Nor is it an assessment of what the international community may think of those who helped bring about peace,” Harvard Law Professor Emeritus Alan Dershowitz wrote in his letter of nomination for Jared Kushner, who was being nominated for his role in the Abraham Accords Middle East peace agreement. “It is an award for fulfilling the daunting criteria set out by Alfred Nobel in his will.”
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