US President quarrels: Trump doesn't know the Nobel Prize winner: "Congratulations anyway"

For Donald Trump, there is only one Nobel Peace Prize winner: himself. He has never heard of Pillay, who has now been honored. He criticizes the decision for a country that cannot do anything about it.

Trump still thinks he should win the Nobel Peace Prize. Photo: Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP/dpa

Syracuse. US President Donald Trump still sees only himself as the legitimate winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. “The United States of America, represented by me as your President, should have received the Nobel Peace Prize - but did not receive it,” he said that evening at a campaign event in Syracuse, New York. He had never heard of the South African lawyer Navanethem Pillay, who was honored with the award on Friday.

Trump again justified his view by claiming that he had ended eight wars during his time in office. He also pointed out that he had freed the hostages from the Islamist Hamas in the Gaza Strip and had been given Greenland. "Despite all of this and all of these incredible achievements, the Nobel Prize was awarded today to a liberal person who works at the United Nations and who no one has ever heard of. I have never heard of this person." He added: “Anyway, congratulations.”

Trump criticized Norway for its decision not to award him the prize. “This is an indelible stain on the country of Norway and on the people who made such a shameful and embarrassing decision.” The Nobel Peace Prize has been forever discredited by a “handful of radical ideologists” who are anti-democratic and in fact enemies of civilization.

Trump: Another sign of how our country is being excluded

He added: “We will not forget Norway that they did not give this prize for the greatest record in history.” The United States should have had eight Nobel Prizes - one for each war its country ended. “The fact that they didn’t give the Nobel Peace Prize to the United States of America is just another sign of how Norway and all these others are ripping off our country.”

The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded solely by an independent Nobel Committee and not by the Norwegian government. Last year, Trump had already criticized Norway for awarding the prize not to him but to Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado. She then symbolically intended it for Trump.

Pillay was honored for her work “to promote peace and international law.” The 85-year-old fought against apartheid in South Africa as a young lawyer and later made a career as a top international lawyer. On Friday, shortly after the award winner was announced, the US government imposed sanctions on the International Criminal Court (ICC), where Pillay was a judge from 2003 to 2008.

The Nobel Peace Prize is considered the most important award in the world. This year, 287 candidates were nominated for the award. It is endowed with the equivalent of just over one million euros.

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