US President Donald Trump said he must “settle the war” in Ukraine before thinking about the Nobel Peace Prize after a reporter asked the president in the Oval Office on Friday what it might take to get security guarantees for Kyiv.
How Trump could up his chances of taking the prize home in 2025 was made clear – as was what Europe might be willing to do in order to get America back on Ukraine’s side.
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Trump was nominated for the 2025 Nobel prize by MAGA Representative Darrell Issa, according to an X post he shared on Monday. “Today I will nominate @realDonaldTrump for the Nobel Peace Prize,” Issa wrote. “No one deserves it more.”
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In response to the nomination, the reporter on Friday stated that he had recently spoken with a Norwegian parliamentarian who had been on Trump’s first nomination team and had insight into what the committee wanted to see.
“What the Nobel committee is looking for from you, Mr. President, is security guarantees for Ukraine,” the reporter asked Trump. “Is that a possibility?”
The US president nodded before responding quickly. “Before I even think about that, I want to settle the war, get it finished,” he said. “Because if I am not here, nobody is going to settle it.”
Trump has repeatedly claimed that he is the only leader worldwide capable of ending Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which began in 2014 and has continued throughout Trump’s first term in office until today. “Everybody has said that,” he said, referring to other presidents and prime ministers.
He once again said that he was not concerned with security guarantees – the single major point of contention between Washington and Kyiv that led to the explosive Oval Office argument between the countries’ presidents last week.
“As far as the question about security later, that’s the easy part,” he said. “The hard part is getting it settled.”
The American leader refused to say more about security guarantees for Ukraine or what he might do to score another Nobel Peace Prize nomination.
I deserve it.
He claimed that “both sides” of the war were losing too many people, saying, “It’s very sad” and “I’d like to see if I can stop that.”
He took the opportunity to repeat debunked claims about American and European aid amounts and types, saying, “And I’d like to also see if we can stop making these massive payments from the US.”
Trump is known to give great value to symbols of grandeur, and he has expressed his respect and desire for a Nobel Peace Prize on multiple occasions, according to Axios.
Multiple players have begun dangling the idea in front of Trump once again to shape his stance on how he approaches ending the wars in Ukraine and Gaza.
Last month, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox News that Trump deserved a Nobel for his efforts to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “If it were fairly awarded, I think in a year, he should get it from what I’ve seen,” Bessent said.
During an Oval Office meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier in February, Trump was asked by a reporter whether he hoped to get a Nobel Peace Prize for ending the war in Gaza.
“I deserve it,” he said at the time. “But they would never give it to me.”
Trump has criticized the Nobel committee for awarding the prize to former President Barack Obama.
“They gave one to Obama immediately upon his ascent to the presidency, and he had no idea why he got it,” he said in 2019. “That was the only thing I agreed with him on.”
Allies, too, have long known the appeal of a Nobel Prize for the US president – as soon as he was elected, some began floating the idea that bringing peace to Ukraine could finally give Trump the credentials he needed for the big prize.
A top Ukrainian parliamentarian from Zelensky’s party, Oleksandr Merezhko, nominated Trump for the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize in November.
“It is my belief that Trump has made considerable contributions to world peace, and that he can make more in the future,” Merezhko, a lawmaker from Zelensky’s Servant of the People party and chairman of the Ukrainian parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, wrote in his nomination letter.
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