Nobel Peace Prize: “President of Peace”? Trump strives for legacy

“I am proud to be the president of peace!”: With these words, US President Donald Trump comments on his platform Truth Social that a ceasefire was agreed between Thailand and Cambodia – according to him after he has intervened. He had now ended many wars in just six months. “Congratulations to everyone!” Writes the Republican.

He congratulates himself the most. For him, the recent agreement supports the image that he wants to draw on himself. If he talks about his foreign policy, he regularly brings the Nobel Peace Prize into play. “I deserve him, but they will never give it to me,” he says when I visit Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in February.

A few months later, Israel’s head of government is back in Washington and informs his counterpart that he had nominated him for the price. It is not Trump’s first nomination – and Netanyahu is not the only politician who has understood that he can score with it with the US President.

Already in his first term, Trump was convinced that he would get the award “for many things” if it were only given fairly. Where does his ambition come from the price, which several US media call “obsession”?

Trump wants a peace pentch legacy

When Trump came to the microphone in his second inauguration in January, he said, among other things,: “We will not only measure our success on the battles that we win, but also to the wars that we end, and perhaps most importantly, the wars that we do not even get into.” With a view to his own role, he added: “My proudest legacy will be that of a peace and reconciler.”

Rivalry with ex-President Obama

Trump’s self -explanatory wish to go into the history as a peace founder should not be his only drive. His former consultant John Bolton wrote a few weeks ago on the platform X: “Trump wants a Nobel Peace Prize because Barack Obama got one.”

In fact, Trump addressed the award of the former president, for example, when he appeared in Las Vegas in October 2024, shortly before he won the presidential election for the second time. “You have awarded Obama the Nobel Prize. He didn’t even know why the hell he got him, right?” Trump said about the man he replaced in 2017 as US President. “He was elected and they announced that he would get the Nobel Prize.”

Trump took up an old criticism of the controversial award of the price to Obama. The Democrat received the award at an early stage in his presidency when he was only in office for a few months. The award was justified with its commitment to strengthening international diplomacy and the cooperation between the peoples. What does Trump believe in deserving the award for?

Long list of conflicts

A few weeks ago he listed several conflicts in the world in a post on the Truth platform in which he conveyed. The word “Nobel Peace Prize” falls six times. Number one of the list is the peace agreement between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda. It was conveyed by the United States and was recently signed in Washington.

“I will not get a Nobel Peace Prize for this,” wrote the President. The same applies, for example, to the conflict between the nuclear powers India and Pakistan, in which Trump has conveyed a ceasefire. Pakistan announced that he would propose him for the Nobel Peace Prize because of his broker role – India contested the United States. Either way – Trump’s listing is not over.

First use of weapons, then ceasefire – role of the USA in Iran

“No, I will not get a Nobel Peace Prize, no matter what I do, Track Russia/Ukraine and Israel/Iran, whatever these results may be,” he continued. Just a day later, a post followed that the world should remember for a long time: The United States attacked the three most important Iranian nuclear facilities, explains Trump and adds: “Now there is time for peace!”.

With the use of “midnight hammer”, the United States actively participated in the war: US starcap bombers dropped a total of 14 bunkerbreaking bombs on Iranian facilities. If it was unclear in the hours after, where this would lead, Trump soon announced a ceasefire between Israel and Iran.

The Republican MP Buddy Carter then stated that he had nominated his party colleague because of his role in conveying an end to the twelve -day war for the Nobel Peace Prize. The US President also ensured that Iran was unable to receive a nuclear weapon.

However, the extent of the damage to the nuclear facilities has not yet been clarified. International law experts classified the attack of the United States and Israel as illegal.

No peace in the Middle East and Ukraine

As a historical breakthrough, however, some of Trump’s earnings from his first term: the so-called Abraham Agreement on the normalization of relationships between Israel and several Arab countries. The Republican launched them in 2020. A Norwegian politician therefore already nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize. In his post a few weeks ago, Trump wrote, if everything went well, the agreements would be signed by other countries and unite the Middle East.

However, the region is still far from peace. The United States has been mediating in the Gaza War for a long time – but even struggling for a temporary ceasefire is difficult. It is also not forgotten by Trump’s controversial proposal for the future of the Gaza Strip: he wants to transform the coastal area under control of the United States into an economically flourishing “Riviera of the Middle East”, he said, and spoke of “relocating” the Palestinians living there into Arab states in the region. According to experts, a forced relocation would violate international law.

And then there is the Russian war of attack against Ukraine: Trump had repeatedly tinted before his election victory that he could end the war within 24 hours. Since taking office, he has been on the phone with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin several times. But he continues to attack the neighboring country – and Trump is criticized not to put enough pressure on the Kremlin chief.

The US President recently seemed to lose patience with both Putin and Netanyahu: he pushed for grocery deliveries in the Gaza Strip and shortened a deadline that Russia should be expected after the end of the trade partner. But Trump’s trading policy in particular shows how leapsome its use of pressure centers can be. Today he threatens – tomorrow he may be rowing back. So it remains to be seen whether he can create sustainable peace – and no temporary time.