US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize but acknowledged doubt about whether he will win it. The Norwegian Nobel Committee will announce the 2026 laureate on Friday. "I don't know what their decision is going to be," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. "They have a reputation for maybe not giving it to people like me." He also said it would be a "great discredit" to the committee if it did not award him the prize this year.
Trump is among 287 candidates nominated for this year's prize. The leaders of Cambodia, Israel and Pakistan have said they nominated him, although there is no way to verify such claims, since nominations are not made public by the committee. Since returning to the White House last year, Trump has repeatedly said he merits the award, which is often regarded as the world's most prestigious. He says he has waded into eight conflicts since taking office last January.
Trump also pointed to an unusual episode from earlier this year. Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who won the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize, gave him her medal in January as she sought US support for her efforts in Venezuela. Trump said he was "very honoured to receive it indirectly" from a recipient who, in his words, said nobody in history deserved it more than he did.
His record as a peacemaker is contested. Parties to some of the conflicts he says he has resolved dispute the role he played, and fighting has flared again in some of those regions, including the Democratic Republic of Congo and along the border between Cambodia and Thailand. Russia's war in Ukraine also remains unresolved, even though Trump promised to end it on the first day of his second term. Meanwhile, US-Israel strikes on Iran have led to a conflict that has simmered for seven months, upended global energy supplies and pushed up gas prices ahead of November's midterm elections in the United States.
The Nobel Peace Prize, awarded in Oslo under the terms of Alfred Nobel's will, is chosen by a committee whose deliberations are kept secret for decades. Pope Leo, the International Criminal Court and the UN special rapporteur for the Palestinian Territories are among the favourites this year. Whether or not Trump wins, his public campaign for the award has made the prize a topic of political debate well beyond Norway.