From the moment in October 2009 when Barack Obama was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize that even he didn’t think he had earned, Republicans have been frantic to even the score by getting one of these recognitions for a president of their own. That has meant multiple Peace Prize nominations for the 45th and 47th president, Donald Trump, despite his routinely belligerent persona.
Since anybody can nominate a potential recipient by letter to the Nobel Committee, they are easy to come by. Trump was nominated in 2018 and 2020 for various diplomatic initiatives; three times in 2021 (twice for the so-called Abraham Accords between Israel and several Gulf countries and once for a trade deal between Serbia and Kosovo he helped broker); and another time in 2024 for the same purported accomplishments.
So it’s hardly surprising that with Trump and his MAGA fans rather hastily celebrating the tentative cease-fire between Israel and Iran as representing a huge step toward permanent global peace, he has again been nominated for a Nobel, as The Hill reported:
Rep. Buddy Carter (R-Ga.) has nominated President Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize for the president’s role in brokering this week’s ceasefire agreement between Iran and Israel.
Carter said he wrote a letter to the Norwegian Nobel Committee on Tuesday to “formally nominate” Trump for the coveted prize “in recognition of his extraordinary and historic role in brokering an end to the armed conflict between Israel and Iran.”
Perhaps the cease-fire will stick, and perhaps it won’t; we’ll have a much better idea about that by October when this year’s batch of Nobel Prizes is announced. But it’s not surprising Carter raced to nominate Trump before any other Republican pol could do so. The South Georgia congressman is an announced candidate for the U.S. Senate next year (hoping to face incumbent Democrat Jon Ossoff), and a Trump endorsement would go a long way toward elevating Carter over such GOP rivals as state insurance commissioner John King and potentially others. He’s also a veteran Trump sycophant; earlier this year, he won headlines for introducing legislation to authorize the president to acquire Greenland and rename it “Red, White, and Blueland.”
The timing of Carter’s move was interesting and not just because he’s jumping the gun a bit in adjudging Trump’s attack on Iran and his subsequent diplomacy as unqualified successes. The same day, we learned an earlier nomination of Trump for the same prize had been withdrawn, as Newsweek reported:
A senior Ukrainian lawmaker who nominated U.S. President Donald Trump for a Nobel Peace Prize has withdrawn it, as peace talks between Kyiv and Moscow slip under the radar and the president keeps his sights fixed on the Middle East.
Oleksandr Merezhko, the head of Ukraine’s parliamentary foreign committee, told Newsweek on Tuesday he had “lost any sort of faith and belief” in Trump and his ability to secure a ceasefire between Moscow and Kyiv.
Merezhko originally nominated Trump for the prize in November.
Too bad Obama can’t give his Peace Prize back and stop this merry-go-round.
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