President Donald Trump lost out on this year’s Nobel Peace Prize despite brokering a historic cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hamas after more than two years of brutal war.
But that was not a snub, more just a case of bad timing. The five-member Norwegian Nobel Committee made this decision on Monday, two days before the peace deal was struck, to bestow this award on Venezuela’s opposition leader Maria Corina Machado.
‘We receive thousands and thousands of letters each year from people wanting to say what, for them, leads to peace. Nobel Peace Prize Committee chair Jorgen Watne Frydnes mentioned on Friday.
‘This committee sits inside a room filled with portraits of all laureates. This room was filled with both courage and integrity. We base our decision only on the work and will of Alfred Nobel,’ the chairman added.
Footage from the streets of Tel Aviv and war-torn Gaza showed crowds cheering revelers chanting Trump’s name in the hours after the deal was made secure, some calling out ‘Nobel Prize for Trump’.
Trump has also garnered widespread peacenik accolades during his second term in office for his efforts to tamp down the escalating conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
Many of the president’s allies have called for him to receive this award, pointing to his work to bring about peace in long-standing global conflicts between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda, Cambodia, and Thailand, among so many more.
Rep Andy Barr was the latest to nominate the commander in chief for the award on Thursday, in recognition of his extraordinary record of diplomatic achievement.