US President Donald Trump has lashed out at Norway after failing to win the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize, criticising the Norwegian Nobel Committee for awarding the honour to South African jurist Navi Pillay. Trump claimed the prize should have gone to the United States, represented by him as president, and described the decision as an “indelible stain” on Norway.
Speaking at a campaign rally in Syracuse, New York, on Friday night, October 9, Trump said the award had gone to a liberal figure who worked for the United Nations and whom, he claimed, few people knew. He congratulated Pillay but said he had never heard of her before.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize to Navi Pillay for her efforts to promote peace and international law. Pillay, a former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, has also served as a judge at the International Criminal Court. She later chaired a UN commission of inquiry into the occupied Palestinian territory. Its findings concerning Gaza drew strong criticism from Israel.
Trump claimed the United Nations had played no role in the conflicts he said he had helped resolve. He said he had not consulted the organisation while working to settle those conflicts because it had offered him no assistance. He argued that the United States should have received the Nobel Peace Prize through him as its president.
Trump then directed his criticism at Norway, saying the decision had left an “indelible stain” on the country and those responsible for the choice. He alleged that a handful of radical ideologues had discredited the Nobel Peace Prize and warned that the United States would not forget Norway’s decision. He presented the failure to award him the prize as another example of what he considers unfair treatment of the United States.
During the rally, Trump repeated his claim that he had ended eight wars and said any one of them would have justified awarding him the Nobel Peace Prize. He cited conflicts involving India and Pakistan, Armenia and Azerbaijan, Kosovo and Serbia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda, Israel and Hamas, and Israel and Iran.
Addressing the Middle East, Trump said he had prevented Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons and creating a situation that could devastate the region. He claimed that, without intervention to stop Iran, a wider area—including Europe—could also have faced a threat.
Trump also highlighted the return of Israeli hostages from Gaza as an achievement. He claimed that all hostages, including the final 28—both living and dead—had been returned. He said negotiations with Hamas had been necessary to secure their return and stressed that returning the remains of deceased hostages to their families was as important as bringing back those who survived.
Concluding his remarks, Trump questioned the Nobel selection process and reiterated his claims about his record on peace. He argued that no other person had achieved a comparable record and alleged that the process for awarding the Nobel Peace Prize was dishonest.
