Trump says snubbing him for Nobel would ‘insult’ US
US President Donald Trump has suggested that denying him the Nobel Peace Prize would amount to an insult to the United States.
Speaking to top military brass in Quantico, Virginia, on Tuesday, Trump said he has repeatedly been overlooked for the award, even though he believes his record qualifies him.
The president pointed to his latest Middle East peace plan, claiming it was the eighth conflict he has helped resolve in as many months.
“We’ll have eight, eight in eight months… Will you get the Nobel Prize? Absolutely not,” he said, before adding, “They’ll give it to some guy that didn’t do a damn thing.”
Trump joked that the prize would likely end up going to a writer instead, insisting he wasn’t seeking personal recognition. “It’ll be a big insult to our country, I will tell you that. I don’t want it. I want the country to get it,” he said.
The US president has claimed he had ended conflicts between Cambodia and Thailand, Kosovo and Serbia, Congo and Rwanda, Israel and Iran, Egypt and Ethiopia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, as well as between Pakistan and India.
Trump's Nobel push received support from the leaders of Israel and Cambodia earlier this year. Pakistan also nominated Trump for the prize, crediting him with diffusing its conflict with India.
However, New Delhi has refuted claims of outside involvement in brokering the ceasefire.
Tensions between Kosovo and Serbia rose earlier this year but never devolved into open conflict, while the standoff between Egypt and Ethiopia over the latter’s hydroelectric dam on the Nile River also did not escalate into a war.
Trump’s attempts to settle the Ukraine conflict and reach a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas have also proved unsuccessful so far.
