Donald Trump’s long-running grievance over the Nobel Peace Prize has resurfaced, this time in a blunt message to Norway’s prime minister suggesting the award’s absence has freed him from any obligation to prioritise peace.
In a message confirmed on Monday, the US president told Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store that “considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace”.
Trump’s claim to have ended eight wars has drawn scepticism. Some of the conflicts he appears to be referencing were brief flare-ups, such as tensions between India and Pakistan, while others he has cited remain active, including Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza and fighting in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Analysts and observers have repeatedly challenged the accuracy of his assertions.
The message’s authenticity was confirmed both by a source close to the matter and by Store himself, who spoke to the Norwegian newspaper VG. Still, the choice of recipient raised eyebrows. The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded not by Norway’s government but by the independent Norwegian Nobel Committee.
Store addressed that directly in a written response.
“I have clearly explained, including to President Trump, what is well known: the prize is awarded by an independent Nobel Committee,” he said.
Trump’s fixation on the prize is nothing new. It flared again recently when Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado handed him her Nobel Peace Prize medal during a visit to the White House, weeks after US special forces abducted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
Unlike Trump’s usual meetings with foreign figures, the encounter was kept behind closed doors, with no live cameras allowed. The White House later released a photograph showing Trump receiving the medal.
Machado, a right-wing opposition figure, was awarded the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize for leading Venezuela’s opposition movement. During her Washington visit, she said she offered the medal to Trump “as a recognition for his unique commitment to our freedom”.
Trump later confirmed on social media that Machado had left the medal with him.
“She is a wonderful woman who has been through so much,” he wrote. “María presented me with her Nobel Peace Prize for the work I have done.”
Norway’s Nobel Institute has since reiterated that the prize is non-transferable. Under the statutes of the Nobel Foundation and the will of Alfred Nobel, the title belongs exclusively to the recipient, regardless of who holds the physical medal.
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