Trump accelerates the campaign for the Nobel Peace Prize before Putin’s meeting

Anchorage, Alaska – Towards the end of Donald Trump’s first term, his national security advisor turned to him in the oval office and said he should win the Nobel Peace Prize for his work Normalize relations Between Israel and certain Arab states.

Another assistant sounded, saying the last president, Barack Obama, had won the “for nothing” award.

“Trump’s attitude was” anything, “recalls advisor, Robert O’Brien, in an interview. “He was not concerned about recognition.”

Any puff of indifference has now disappeared. Back at the office, Trump and his collaborators intensify a public campaign to hang the price, citing a chain of Peace deals While arguing that snobing again would be an injustice.

Day after day, the White House amplifies the role of Trump in the limitation of hostilities and the publication of the message that this combative of the presidents is at heart one “peacemaker. “”

Assistants highlighted its role in the rule of disputes between Israel and Iran, Armenia and Azerbaijan, Cambodia and Thailand, and Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, promoting “world calls“Heads of several of these nations so that Trump won the peace prize.

Trump is also praise his efforts To put an end to a disturbing conflict between two nuclear weapons fighters, India and Pakistan. He suggested that he used trade as an incentive to stop fighting, although a The Indian official has denied This Trump mediation made any difference.

Speaking last month, the White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that the president had “negotiated, on average, a peace agreement or a cease-fire per month during his six-month in power. It went well that President Trump received the Nobel Peace Prize,” she added.

A difference between this term and the last is that now, “he wants it in fact,” said a senior official of Trump’s first mandate about the Nobel Peace Prize, speaking under the guise of anonymity. “He doesn’t just want to talk about it.”

Now comes his best blow. Trump will fly to Alaska on Friday for a sit down with Russian President Vladimir Putin aimed to end a war with Ukraine who produced near 1.5 million victims on both sides.

The chances of a breakthrough are difficult, but if Trump warns a truce to terms that are just for Ukraine, it would be a diplomatic triumph that has escaped both Obama and President Joe Biden.

As the summit approaches, the Nobel Prize has seemed to be a summit of mind in Trump’s circle. Without encouraging, Leavitt described Trump as deserving the price in three of his four press points in July. During the previous months, she had not noted the price.

Trump has published a total of seven times on his social media site since the start of his second mandate, including six in June and July. One of his theme is that even if he has won the distinction, he will not win it.

“The president believes that he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize, but does not think he will get it,” said a White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity. “He noticed that it will go to someone who writes a book on how Donald Trump thinks rather that Donald Trump himself.”

During a visit to the White House in April, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre was asked about Trump’s prospects to win the award, announced each year in Oslo.

He did not bit.

“On this price, it is a committee that takes care of what works completely according to its own conditions and I cannot comment on this,” said Støre.

Trump smiled and looked through the cabinet’s room to the Prime Minister: “I like this question”, ” He said.

The price is only in the hands of the Nobel Selection Committee; Politicians do not choose the winner. But Trump has already raised the problem with Norway. Last month, he called the country’s Minister of Finance, the former NATO secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, to talk about prices and raised the peace prize, a Norwegian media written Thursday.

The White House official said that the president and Stoltenberg had spoken, but could not say that the conversation was focused on the price. The Stoltenberg office did not immediately respond to a request for comments.

Trump is surrounded by reminders of the former presidents who won what is undoubtedly the most prestigious prize in humanity. Obama, whose portrait is hung at the White House, won him less than a year in his presidency and even he recognized at the time that his achievements were “light” Unlike other Nobel Prize winners.

A few steps from the Oval Office, Theodore Roosevelt’s Nobel Prize is exposed, which means both the challenge and the opportunities Trump is confronted. Roosevelt won in 1906 for ending another Russian conflict: a war with Japan.

As much as he aligns politically with the works who work, Trump has long been attentive to elite opinion. He is proud to say that his deceased uncle, John Trump, taught the acclaimed Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He described his Alma Mater, the University of Pennsylvania Wharton schoolAs “the most difficult school to enter, the best school in the world”.

By announcing the Kennedy Center winners on Wednesday on Wednesday, Trump said that he had wanted one for a long time for himself. The president now plans to welcome the honors of Kennedy Center this year, teasing journalists: “Maybe … next year, we will honor Trump.”

A Nobel Peace Prize would be the ultimate validation.

“If the Israel-Hamas / Iran and Russia-Ukraine conflicts are resolved, there is no way not to give President Trump the Nobel Peace Prize,” said O’Brien.

“The Nobel Committee may not like Trump,” he added. “They may not like his personality. They may not like his populism, but if the price has a meaning, they must give it to him.”

Of course, the Nobel selection committee has its own ideas on what it takes to win. The body of five members appointed by the Norwegian Parliament can weigh on other criteria outside the peace agreements that the White House has counted.

In his will, Alfred Nobel said the prize should be spent on those “who have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations”.

Since Trump took office, some long -standing American allies have seen fraternal ties. Trump has deployed rigorous prices in pursuing a “America First” program intended to create more jobs at home. He amazed various world capitals with his calls for the acquisition of Greenland, Canada and the Panama Canal.

“Trump’s desire to win the Nobel Peace Prize has become a joke in foreign capitals,” said a former British diplomat. “His statements in Canada, Panama, Greenland, etc., as well as the tariff wars and the assault against American democratic institutions, tilt governments in the opposite direction.”

What is happening in the camera deliberations of the Nobel Committee is a closely kept secret. The panel accepts the appointments until the end of January and announces the winner in October. He waits 50 years before revealing even a list of nominees.

Possible handicapping the winners of the 2025 price, A Norwegian reflection group did not mention the name of Trump. The handle of the horses cited by the group included “the emergency rooms of Sudan”, the Prime Minister of Qatar, the OSCE office for democratic institutions and human rights, and the international female league for peace and freedom.

It is far from clear that the Nobel Committee is likely to persuasion. Pressure, advertising and creation of coalitions work in politics, the Trump arena knows well. But the Nobel Committee is isolated from this world.

The price “is not something for which you are campaigning,” said a Western diplomat. “This is a decision made by independent people who have their own point of view. You cannot buy it. Norway does not need money.”

Last week, Trump held a meeting in the White House with the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan to mark a rapprochement between the two countries. Questioned by a journalist, the two managers pushed for the candidacy of the Nobel Prize in Trump.

Nikol Pashinyan, Prime Minister of Armenia, said: “We will promote this.”

Turning to Trump, he said: “I hope you invite us” to the award ceremony.

“The first row,” said Trump.