Updated October 9, 2026, 6:08 a.m. ET
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump was bracing for defeat. Yet he made a last-minute effort, saying this week in the Oval Office that he deserved the Nobel Peace Prize for his intervention to resolve or prevent conflicts around the world.
It didn’t work.
On October 9, the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the prize to South African lawyer Navi Pillay for her efforts in favor of peace and international law. Pillay dedicated his career to promoting human rights law by championing the anti-apartheid movement and investigating crimes against humanity.
The move deprives Trump of a reward he has long coveted and often complains about not receiving, months after ousting the Venezuelan leader in a military operation and launching a war against Iran.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee’s decision to recognize Pillay, an international jurist, serves as a rebuke to the Trump administration’s efforts to sanction the International Criminal Court after it issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for alleged crimes committed by Israel in its war against Hamas.
“The international law system is under enormous pressure and its institutions are under attack,” said Jørgen Watne Frydnes, chair of the commission. “We see a shift towards power politics at the expense of legal frameworks and global respect for law and justice. »
Trump acknowledged before the announcement that he would likely not be awarded the prize.
“I don’t know what their decision will be. They have a reputation for not giving it to people like me. But whether I get it or not, I’ve done a lot more, and I think that would be a great discredit to them,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on October 7.
Trump said he deserved the award for resolving eight conflicts, including the war between Israel and Hamas that has been under a nominal ceasefire since October 2025. Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida is among Trump allies who said they nominated Trump for the peace prize for brokering a ceasefire in the conflict and bringing hostages home.
The president’s tally also includes a conflict between Iran and Israel over Tehran’s nuclear program, which ended and then resumed when the United States and Israel teamed up in February to bomb Iran. The president said this week that his military intervention to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons was one of the reasons he should win this year’s prize.
He also touted his tariffs on countries around the world and the U.S.-led negotiations to end Russia’s war in Ukraine.
“I’m not bragging. I’m just telling you the facts. No president has probably settled any wars. I’ve settled eight, and major ones,” Trump said on October 7.
Although Trump has been praised for helping end hostilities in some conflicts, his peacemaking efforts have not been universally successful.
Trump’s Peace Council initiative recently touted a $2.45 billion reconstruction plan for Gaza, but that effort has struggled to move forward, with Israel refusing to withdraw its troops from Gaza until Hamas completely disarms.
The “president of peace”
The self-proclaimed “president of peace” apparently found it easier last year to start wars than to stop them.
Trump authorized a military operation in Venezuela in January to capture Nicolás Maduro, the country’s leader, and bring him to the United States to face drug charges. The Justice Department filed additional charges of conspiring to torture Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, on October 8.
In February, Trump went to war with Iran. This conflict has lasted for more than eight months while American and Iranian negotiators struggle to negotiate a peace agreement.
Meanwhile, Russia’s war against Ukraine rages on with no peace in sight. (During the 2024 presidential campaign, Trump repeatedly claimed he would end the fighting within 24 hours of taking office.)
Four American presidents have received the Nobel Peace Prize: Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama, who won the prize in his first year in office.
Obama’s award in particular angered Trump, who claimed that Obama “got an award for doing nothing.”
For now, Trump will have to settle for other peace prizes.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino named Trump the first recipient of the FIFA Peace Prize in December 2025, after the Nobel Committee abandoned Trump that year.
A month later, Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, winner of the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize, presented her prize to Trump after the US military operation to remove Maduro.
The Norwegian Nobel Institute said the prize was not transferable.
“The facts are clear and well established,” the institute wrote in a press release. “Once a Nobel Prize is announced, it cannot be revoked, shared or transferred to others.”
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