The American president Donald Trump lashed out this Friday against the Norwegian Nobel Committee after it became known that the 2026 Peace Prize was awarded to South African jurist Navi Pillay, and not to him, calling the decision shameful and warning Norway that he would not forget the slight.
According to Reuters, Trump voiced his criticisms during a political rally held just hours after the committee's announcement. "This is an indelible stain on the country of Norway and on the people who made such a shameful and embarrassing decision", he stated to his supporters.
The leader went further and questioned the legitimacy of the award itself: «The Nobel Peace Prize has been forever discredited by a handful of radical ideologues who are antidemocratic and true enemies of civilization. And we will not forget, Norway».
Trump also claimed recognition on behalf of the country he leads: «the United States of America, represented by me as its president, should have received the Nobel Peace Prize, but they did not».
About Pillay, 85 years old and with a long career in defending international law and human rights, Trump said he did not know who she was: “I had never heard of that person. No one had,” he stated, describing her as a “mysterious person.”
The award winner herself responded with humor. Upon receiving the news in Nuremberg, in front of a cheering crowd, Pillay joked, "If you applaud a little more, I might share this award with Trump."
This is Trump's second consecutive defeat in his quest for the Nobel during his second term. The previous Friday, Trump had stated to reporters in the Oval Office that he deserved the award for having intervened in eight conflicts, although he acknowledged having doubts about his chances.
At the rally, Trump listed a series of geopolitical tensions in which he claimed to have played a decisive role—between the two Koreas, between Japan and North Korea, and between China and Taiwan—without providing evidence to support his assertions.
The analysis from CNN suggests that Trump's own actions during his second term undermined any real chance of receiving the award: the war against Iran that began in February 2026, which has now lasted over seven months, and the invasion of Venezuela to capture Nicolás Maduro, which the president himself described at the UN General Assembly with the phrase, "to the victor belong the spoils", hardly align with the profile of a Nobel Peace Prize laureate.
At the Syracuse rally, he repeated that same phrase about Venezuela, adding: "We are taking it for ourselves. We deserve it".
It is worth noting that the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded by a committee of five members appointed by the Norwegian Parliament, completely independent of the government of that country— a distinction that Trump overlooked by directing his criticisms straight at Norway.
Last year, when he also did not receive the award —which went to Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado—, FIFA created its own "Peace Prize" and presented it to Trump in December 2025.
Machado even symbolically presented her Nobel medal at the White House on January 15, 2026, although the Nobel Institute immediately clarified that the award cannot be transferred and that Machado remains the official laureate.
The Nobel Peace Prize ceremony for 2026 is scheduled for December 10 in Oslo, where Pillay will receive the award worth 12 million Swedish kronor.
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