U.S. President Donald Trump criticized the decision not to award him the Nobel Peace Prize at a rally in New York held to support Republicans. Trump said the Nobel Committee’s decision had left an “indelible stain” on Norway.
Trump argued that he should receive eight Nobel Peace Prizes for claiming to have ended eight ongoing conflicts. Saying he had worked to end or prevent conflicts in Africa and Asia, Trump also claimed that he had saved more lives than anyone else in history.
Speaking about this year’s laureate, Trump said, “I know a lot of people. I have never heard of this person, but congratulations anyway.”
Trump also said that the United States should receive the Nobel Peace Prize, stating, “The United States, which I represent as your president, should have received the Nobel Peace Prize, but it did not.”
The 2026 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to South African lawyer Navanethem Navi Pillay for her work on peace and international law.
At a rally in Syracuse, New York, held ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm elections, Trump described Pillay as an unknown liberal who worked for the United Nations. Claiming that the Nobel Peace Prize had lost its reputation because of anti-democratic radical ideologues, Trump cited the conflict between India and Pakistan as an example of the wars he claims to have ended. In a written statement later, Trump again said he did not know Pillay and claimed that she hated Israel.
Navi Pillay served as a judge and president of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, worked as a judge at the International Criminal Court and served as the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights from 2008 to 2014. The UN commission of inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, which Pillay chaired from 2021 to 2025, concluded that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza; Israel rejected the assessment.
