Trump Nobel Peace Prize Nomination – What You Need to Know

Less than two months before the U.S. election, President Donald Trump seems to be celebrating – the nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Citing the role of the president in the recent peace agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, a right-wing Norwegian politician has put forward Mr. Trump’s name for the 2021 prize.

Christian Tybring-ZZde told Fox News on Wednesday: “For his merit, I think he has made more effort to create peace between nations than any other Peace Prize nominees.”

He said he was not a big Trump supporter. “The committee should look into the facts and make a judgment on the facts – not in the way he sometimes behaves.”

It’s not like the nomination won – we don’t know the winner for another 13 months – so what can we do with this news?

So who nominates a person?

For nomination, the barrier to entry is low: all nominations are accepted from heads of state or politicians working at the national level.

Those eligible to submit nominations for the prize include university professors, directors of foreign policy institutions, Nobel laureates and members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee. Nominations are not invited and will be accepted until February 1 of the qualifying year.

There are 318 candidates for the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize – the winner of which has not yet been announced. The Norwegian Nobel Committee does not comment publicly on its nominees, which have been kept secret for 50 years.

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Has Mr. Trump been nominated before?

Yes.

And for the second time, he thanked Mr. Tybring-ZZde. In 2018, one of the two Norwegian legislators who nominated Mr. Trump for the same prize was a moderate politician, later for his efforts to bring reconciliation to North and South Korea.

Mr Trump did not take the prize home that year, but a member of the Conservative Progress Party, Mr Tybring-JZD, insisted the US president was meeting the standards this time around.

Last month, Israel and the UAE reached an agreement to normalize relations, agreeing to suspend controversial plans to seize part of the Israeli-occupied West Bank – Mr Trump announced in a surprise statement.

It marks the third Israeli-Arab peace treaty since Israel declared independence in 1948, and the first official diplomatic relationship between Israel and the Gulf Arab state. It is learned that Palestinian leaders were protected by this agreement.

“This is a highly earned and well – deserved honor for this president,” White House Press Secretary Kylie McEnani said Wednesday. “Career politicians talk about the results this president has achieved on the world stage.”

Have you nominated an American president before?

Mr Trump is one of several U.S. presidents to have received the Peace Prize nomination, including President William Howard Taft, President Herbert Hoover and President Franklin Roosevelt.

If he receives the prestigious award, Mr Trump will be the fifth president of the United States after Theodore Roosevelt in 1906, Woodrow Wilson in 1920, Jimmy Carter in 2002 and Barack Obama in 2009.

Mr Obama’s nomination – just a few months after taking office – has drawn criticism in the US, with some arguing that he did not make a decent impact on the award.

Among his opponents? Mr Trump tweeted in 2013 calling for the cancellation of the Mr Obama Award.

Former Nobel Secretary Gir Lundestad has said he regrets Obama’s choice. “A lot of Obama supporters believe the gift was a mistake,” he told the AP news agency. “In that sense, the committee did not achieve what it set out to do.”

Mr. Obama donated the 4 1.4m (8 1.08m) award to the charity.

Have there been any controversial nominations before?

The most famous recipients of the award are Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela and Mother Teresa – all prize winners – a wide range of nominations which means there are highly unusual and controversial choices among past nominees.

Adolf Hitler was nominated in 1939 by the Swedish parliament for the Peace Prize. Ironically submitted, the nomination was immediately withdrawn. A few years later, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin was nominated twice for the same award, in 1945 – for his efforts ending with WW2 – and again in 1948.

After the nominations are submitted, the recipient is selected by a five-member Nobel Committee, appointed by the Norwegian Parliament. The winner of the 2021 prize will not be announced until October next year.