President Donald Trump’s campaign to secure a Nobel Peace Prize is being greeted with widespread skepticism in Europe, the Financial Times reported Wednesday.
"Nobody has campaigned for a Nobel Peace Prize quite like Donald Trump. The US president has been brazen and unrelenting in his quest for one of the world’s most prestigious honours, saying it would be a 'big insult' were he not to receive it.
Despite his persistent efforts, many in Oslo believe he has little real chance of claiming the award next week," the report noted.
According to the report, Trump has publicly and privately lobbied the Norwegian Nobel Committee, hoping to be named laureate. But insiders in Norway say his overt requests have done more harm than good.
One unnamed European diplomat told the Financial Times that Trump’s decision to rename the U.S. Department of Defense the “Department of War” only deepened doubts about his candidacy, observing that his winning would “send out a strange signal.”
The diplomat added, “It has been hard to take some of his proclamations seriously.”
In recent weeks, Trump has claimed credit for ending up to 10 global conflicts. But the same diplomat told the Financial Times that such declarations are not taken seriously in Europe.
Still, the diplomat conceded that if Trump were to broker a ceasefire in Gaza before the Nobel announcement, it could boost his standing.
Those in charge of selecting laureates may not even weigh recent developments, per the report.
The 2025 Peace Prize will be based primarily on achievements during 2024, before Trump resumed office.
Meanwhile, his supporters point to precedent: Former President Barack Obama received the prize in 2009, less than a year into his term, for “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and co-operation between peoples.”
Trump has claimed the Nobel Committee is hostile toward him.
“If I were named Obama, I would have had the Nobel prize given to me in 10 seconds,” he said last year.
His appeals have reportedly included a call to Norway’s finance minister and former NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg. The pressure campaign prompted Norway’s Foreign Minister, Espen Barth Eide, to reaffirm that the committee is independent of the government.
Critics in Norway warn that Trump’s open lobbying may be counterproductive.
Nina Græger, director of the Peace Research Institute Oslo, told the Financial Times, “Putting pressure on the committee, going on talking about ‘I need the prize, I’m the worthy candidate’ — it’s not a very peaceful approach.”