Trump has been nominated for the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize not once, but twice!

Early last week, US President Donald Trump was nominated for one of the world’s most honoured awards, the Nobel Peace Prize, for his role in brokering the peace agreement and normalising relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates. Last Friday, Trump’s name was submitted again by Swedish politician Magnus Jacobsson, who gave the US President a second nomination after helping secure normalised economic relations between Serbia and Kosovo.

Should Trump win, he will become the fifth US president to do so. Previous sitting US president winners include Barack Obama (who won the award within nine months in office), Jimmy Carter, Franklin Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson.

Trump’s earlier nomination was put forward by a far-right member of the Norwegian parliament, Christian Tybring-Gjedde, who also gave Trump his first-ever nomination for the peace prize in 2018 after he became the first US president to step into North Korea. Crossing the demilitarised zone in June 2019, Trump’s ties with Pyongyang earned him his first nomination for organising the North Korea-United States Singapore summit in June 2018, which was followed by a second round of talks in Hanoi. When reached for comment, Tybring-Gjedde said, “for his merit, I think he has done more trying to create peace between nations than most other Peace Prize nominees.”

Trump has certainly been busy on the global stage: in May 2019 he took the bold step of opening the US Embassy in Jerusalem, and also initiated a trade war with China, which led to the signing of the US-China Phase One trade deal in January 2020. Considering these achievements and the landmark agreement, Trump will be hopeful about being second time lucky. He told a crowd at his latest campaign rally in Freeland, Michigan to be nominated “an amazing thing”. Indeed, the White House press secretary released a statement saying “[Trump] is honoured to be considered by the Nobel Committee,” with the Israeli-UAE peace deal being “a testament to the bold diplomacy and vision of President Trump.”

Of course, a nomination is not the same as winning, and whether Trump wins the prize or not won’t be known for another 13 months, with nominations purely being the preliminary step. In 2020, there were 318 candidates, with this year’s winner to be announced on Friday 9th October. It was last won by Abiy Ahmed Ali, the Prime Minister of Ethiopia “for his efforts to achieve peace and international cooperation, and in particular for his decisive initiative to resolve the border conflict with neighbouring Eritrea”.

This nomination comes at a critical time for Trump, as a new Monmouth poll shows Joe Biden holding a 51% to 44% lead over Trump among likely voters with the US Presidential election but months away. Whilst a Noble Peace Prize nomination is not expected to be a significant factor amongst voters, and the US President will be glad to take any good press that comes his way.