Trump Nominated for Nobel Peace Prize After Israel-Hamas Deal

ERBIL (Kurdistan24) - Just 48 hours after announcing a landmark breakthrough in the nearly two-year-old war between Israel and Hamas, United States President Donald Trump has been formally nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, a coveted honor he has openly and vociferously campaigned for throughout his presidency. The nomination, put forward by Republican Congressman Buddy Carter, lauds the president's role in brokering the ceasefire deal and a string of other international agreements, framing him as "the Peace President."

However, as the Norwegian Nobel Committee prepares to announce the 2025 laureate on Friday, a confluence of logistical hurdles, deep-seated controversy, and the president's own "America First" foreign policy doctrine has led experts in Oslo to declare with near certainty that the prize is out of his reach this year, despite a furious, eleventh-hour lobbying campaign by his international allies and domestic supporters.

The nomination from Representative Carter, a Republican from Georgia who is currently running for the U.S. Senate, was first reported by Fox News Digital. "No one deserves the Nobel Peace Prize more than Donald J. Trump, the Peace President," Carter told the news outlet. "In nine short months, he’s negotiated seven peace deals, not including the recent announcement of a historic agreement between Israel and Hamas to release the hostages and end hostilities."

He added, "He has already saved countless lives, and the globe is forever indebted to him for his courageous pursuit of world peace." Fox News Digital was also told that Carter intends to force a vote on his resolution nominating the president if he does not win on Friday, using a procedural tool known as a discharge petition.

This latest nomination is part of a broad and highly unusual public campaign to secure the prize for President Trump, an effort that has seen a wide range of supporters, from the families of Israeli hostages to foreign heads of state, weighing in.

As reported by The Wall Street Journal, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took a break from the Gaza negotiations on Thursday to post an altered photo on the social media platform X, showing himself hanging an oversized Nobel medal around Trump's neck.

"He deserves it!" Netanyahu wrote. The families of some Israeli hostages also threw their weight behind the president, writing in a recent letter to the Nobel committee that "in this past year, no leader or organization has contributed more to peace around the world than President Trump."

President Trump himself has been a relentless, if sometimes contradictory, advocate for his own candidacy. The New York Times has documented his years-long fixation on the prize, which he has discussed at length on more than a half-dozen occasions since taking office, often vacillating between indignation at being overlooked and a feigned indifference.

He has bitterly complained about his predecessor, Barack Obama, receiving the prize less than nine months into his first term, an award Mr. Obama himself acknowledged was for "slight" accomplishments at the time.

In a September speech to military leaders, Trump complained, "They’ll give it to some guy that didn’t do a damn thing," while also claiming, "I don’t want it. I want the country to get it." He has used major global platforms, like his recent address to the United Nations General Assembly, to make his case, listing his diplomatic achievements and stating, "What I care about is not winning prizes, it’s saving lives."

When asked by AFP on Thursday about his chances, Trump was characteristically bold, claiming, "nobody in history has solved eight wars in a period of nine months." He declared that the Gaza deal was "the biggest of them all."

Despite this full-court press, the consensus among experts who closely follow the Nobel process is that the president's chances for the 2025 prize are virtually zero. The primary and most insurmountable obstacle is one of timing.

According to a report by AFP, the five-member Norwegian Nobel Committee held its final meeting on Monday, where it put the finishing touches on the statement explaining its choice for this year's laureate. This means that the decision was finalized and locked in two full days before President Trump announced the Gaza ceasefire breakthrough on Wednesday.

"The Gaza deal 'has absolutely no significance' for the choice of the 2025 laureate because 'the Nobel Committee has already made its decision'," historian and Peace Prize expert Asle Sveen told AFP. "Trump will not win the prize this year. I'm 100 percent certain."

Furthermore, as noted by The New York Times, the prize typically rewards achievements from the preceding year. In 2024, Mr. Trump had been elected but had not yet been sworn in for his second term.

The nomination deadline for this year’s prize was January 31, a mere 11 days after he took office. While the committee has considered "year-of" accomplishments in the past, Nina Graeger, the director of the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO), explained to The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal that the prize specifically honors "sustainable and lasting peace."

She suggested that if the Gaza peace plan proves successful, it could bolster the president's candidacy for next year's prize.

Beyond the logistical hurdles, President Trump's candidacy faces significant ideological and political challenges. Asle Sveen pointed out to AFP that for much of the two-year Gaza conflict, Trump had given Prime Minister Netanyahu "free rein" to bomb the territory and had provided significant military aid to the Israeli army, a position that is difficult to reconcile with a prize for peace.

Experts in Oslo, as reported by AFP, also insist that his "America First" policies run counter to the core ideals of the Peace Prize, which, as laid out in Alfred Nobel's 1895 will, is intended to honor those who "advance fellowship among nations."

Ms. Graeger noted to The New York Times that some of the president's key foreign policy decisions, such as the U.S. strikes on Iran’s nuclear program, its withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement, and cuts to international humanitarian aid, run directly counter to the prize's criteria of peaceful disarmament and international cooperation.

She added that his domestic policy agenda, which includes a crackdown on dissent and attacks on academic freedom, points to an "infringement of the basic democratic rights," a factor that could also weigh against him.

The president has also drawn the personal ire of some of the panel's members. The New York Times reported that Jorgen Frydnes, the chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, had previously cited President Trump by name when talking about the "erosion of freedom of expression, even in democratic nations."

With no obvious favorite among the 338 individuals and organizations nominated this year, speculation has been rife. Names circulating in Oslo, according to AFP, include Sudan's Emergency Response Rooms, a network of volunteers aiding those affected by war and famine; Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of the late Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny; and various international bodies such as the UN and its agencies, the International Court of Justice, and press freedom organizations like the Committee to Protect Journalists.

What is certain, a Nobel Institute spokesman told AFP, is that "there will be a laureate this year," quashing any speculation that the prize might be withheld due to the bleak global geopolitical situation. As the world awaits the announcement from Oslo, the unprecedented and highly public campaign for President Trump has highlighted the deep and often contentious intersection of politics, personality, and the pursuit of peace.