Trump beaten to Nobel Peace Prize by Venezuelan politician – Norway is scared of what Trump will do

Despite brokering ‘peace in the Middle East’, US president is overlooked for accolade he has openly coveted. Donald Trump has lost out on the Nobel Peace Prize despite heavy-handed lobbying from the US president and his support, ‘The Telegraph’ writes.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee gave the award to María Corina Machado, a Venezuelan opposition politician in hiding.

Two days before the committee announced a winner, Mr Trump declared he had secured “peace in the Middle East” after brokering the agreement between Israel and Hamas to end the two-year conflict.

At the 11th hour, Mr Trump’s campaign received a spate of late backers, and his allies went into overdrive to help win him the award he has openly coveted for years. But despite the president claiming also to have ended “seven unendable wars”, it was not enough.

Mr Trump has been outspoken in his desire for a prize won by four of his predecessors, Barack Obama in 2009, Jimmy Carter in 2002, Woodrow Wilson in 1919, and Theodore Roosevelt in 1906.

With the exception of Carter, they each won the award while in office, with Mr Obama honoured less than eight months into his presidency.

Those with knowledge of the Nobel process had said that a Trump win was extremely unlikely, citing what they saw as his efforts to dismantle the post-Second World War international world order, which the Nobel committee cherishes.

Nina Graeger, head of the Peace Research Institute Oslo, said Mr Trump’s withdrawal from the World Health Organisation and the 2015 Paris climate accords, and his trade war with allies, went against the spirit of Nobel’s 1895 will.

Mr Harpviken, the committee secretary, who participates in all the deliberations of the five-strong panel but does not vote, said the award was not intended for last-minute achievements.

“This is a prize primarily for work done in 2024 and prior years,” Mr Harpviken told the broadcaster NRK on Friday. “It’s not a prize for the work done in the most recent weeks or months.”

Last year’s award went to Nihon Hidankyo, a Japanese grass-roots movement of atomic-bomb survivors, who have advocated for the global abolition of nuclear weapons.

Insiders say the award follows a year-long process, during which the committee debates the candidates’ strengths and weaknesses.

Nominations for the prize must reach the committee by Jan 31. Committee members can also make nominations before the committee’s first meeting in February. Thereafter, the committee meets about once a month. The decision tends to be taken in August or September.

Kirsti Bergstø, the leader of Norway’s Socialist Left Party, told ‘The Guardian’ that Oslo must be “prepared for anything.”

“Donald Trump is taking the U.S. in an extreme direction, attacking freedom of speech, having masked secret police kidnapping people in broad daylight and cracking down on institutions and the courts. When the president is this volatile and authoritarian, of course we have to be prepared for anything,” Bergstø told the international newspaper.

“The Nobel Committee is an independent body and the Norwegian government has no involvement in determining the prizes,” she continued. “But I’m not sure Trump knows that. We have to be prepared for anything from him.”

It’s no secret that Trump has pined for the international honor: The U.S. president phoned Norway’s Finance Minister Jens Stoltenberg “out of the blue” back in July to inquire about the possibility of acquiring the prize, using tariffs as a cover for their discussion.

Trump has complained for years that his name has not yet been added to the ranks of prize recipients, who span some of the greatest figures of the last century, including Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr., Mother Theresa, and Malala Yousafzai.

Part of the contention could be that Trump’s supposed political nemesis, former President Barack Obama, received the award in 2009 for “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.” Three other U.S. presidents have also won a Nobel Peace Prize.

“They gave it to Obama for absolutely destroying our country,” Trump said, during an Oval Office meeting with Finnish President Alexander Stubb Thursday. “My election was much more important.”

US President Donald Trump may increase trade tariffs on Norway if the Norwegian Nobel Committee does not award him the Peace Prize, The Daily Telegraph reported.

Norway should prepare for possible measures from the US, given that Trump, who has openly spoken of his desire to win the Nobel Peace Prize, "has a long record of punishing those who upset him." The article noted that the US leader, in particular, may call on other countries to refuse to purchase Norwegian gas or oil or to limit official contacts with Oslo, TASS quotes.

Previously, Trump's associates had threatened to impose visa restrictions on Norway after the country's sovereign wealth fund announced plans to sell its stake in Caterpillar, a leading global manufacturer of construction equipment, due to the company's bulldozers and other machinery being used by Israeli authorities to demolish Palestinian homes in the Gaza Strip.

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