Trump claims he is not ‘politicking’ for Nobel Peace Prize - past comments suggest otherwise

US president Donald Trump’s hopes of being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize are well-documented, but this week he ended up raising eyebrows when he claimed he is not “politicking” for the accolade, despite all the times he’s gone on the record talking about how much he wants the prestigious award.

It comes after The Nobel Prize, which also has prizes in areas such as literature, chemistry and physics, announced it would reveal its decision surrounding this year’s Nobel Peace Prize on 10 October.

Responding to a reporter’s question about this key date in the White House on Friday, after bringing the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan together for talks, Trump said: “I’m not politicking for [the Nobel Peace Prize]. I have a lot of people that are, you know. I mean, I read the same things as you do. But it would be a great honour, certainly, but I would never politick…

“I’m not doing it because of that. I’m doing it because of… I really… Number one, I want to save lives.”

He then went on to claim that the Russia-Ukraine war “would have ended up being a world war” if he hadn’t secured a second term in office, as his administration “stopped that”.

It turns out it was just over a month ago that the Republican took to his Truth Social platform to complain that he “won’t get a Nobel Peace Prize” for the peace deal between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo which the US mediated.

Mentioning the accolade six times in one post, Trump wrote on 20 June: “I won’t get a Nobel Peace Prize for stopping the War between India and Pakistan, I won’t get a Nobel Peace Prize for stopping the War between Serbia and Kosovo, I won’t get a Nobel Peace Prize for keeping Peace between Egypt and Ethiopia … and I won’t get a Nobel Peace Prize for doing the Abraham Accords in the Middle East which, if all goes well, will be loaded to the brim with additional Countries signing on, and will unify the Middle East for the first time in ‘The Ages!’

“No, I won’t get a Nobel Peace Prize no matter what I do, including Russia/Ukraine, and Israel/Iran, whatever those outcomes may be, but the people know, and that’s all that matters to me!”

Diddums.

And more recently, it was only last week that his press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said during a White House press briefing that it was “well past time” Trump was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Trump’s remarks on Friday have since resulted in him being branded “pathetic” by social media users:

“He has been begging for one for six months,” claimed one Twitter/X account:

Another described it as an “insane moment” from the president:

Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, confirmed back in July that he had nominated Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize, while Ukrainian lawmaker Oleksander Merezhko ended up withdrawing his nomination amid stalling peace talks in the Russia-Ukraine war.

He said he had “lost any sort of faith and belief” in Trump and that the US president has “chosen the path of appeasement”.

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