GOP lawmaker makes dig at Trump for 'lobbying' for Nobel Peace Prize: 'It looks unseemly'

Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) took an apparent dig at President Donald Trump Friday for his “lobbying” efforts toward being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, which instead was awarded to Venezuelan politician Maria Corina Machado Friday morning, outraging a swath of MAGA faithful.

For years, Trump has remarked at how he should be awarded the prestigious honor, and complained about having not received it. This year, however, the White House and its foreign allies have launched an aggressive lobbying effort to see Trump nominated for the award, with Trump frequently bragging about having stopped “eight wars,” despite the claim being rebuked by critics.

Appearing on CNN, Bacon was asked whether he thought Trump should have won the Nobel Peace Prize, to which he said Trump would be “better off” ignoring the award, and that the lobbying efforts looked “unseemly.”

“I think he deserves a lot of credit for getting an agreement between Israel and Hamas… I think the president deserves a lot of credit for bringing these two together, [but] this whole thing about the Nobel Peace Prize, I think, is silly,” Bacon said.

“Do the right thing, try to create peace. Lobbying for an award? To me it looks unseemly, and he would just be better off delivering results and let the chips fall where they fall for the Nobel Peace Prize.”

Bacon has had a fraught relationship with the MAGA movement, having harshly criticized Trump in the past on his tariff policy, and refusing to object to the results of the 2020 election alongside more hardline Trump GOP loyalists.

The White House responded to Trump not being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize Friday as well. Despite the Nobel Committee’s most-recent eligibility window for consideration being the 2024 calendar year, before Trump took office for his second term, the White House issued a statement condemning the committee for placing “politics over peace.”

The lobbying effort to see Trump given the award included efforts from several foreign nations, including Israel, Pakistan and Armenia, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court last year – proclaiming on social media that Trump “deserves” the award, alongside an edited image of himself placing the award around Trump’s neck.

“They will never give me a Nobel Peace Prize,” Trump lamented earlier this year in February. “It’s too bad. I deserve it, but they will never give it to me.”