A far-right Norwegian lawmaker has again nominated US president Donald Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize – this time for his efforts in a deal to establish diplomatic ties between Israel and the United Arab Emirates.
Christian Tybring-Gjedde announced the 2021 nomination on Wednesday on the “Fox News Rundown” podcast, saying he believed Trump’s actions met the criteria set by Alfred Nobel for the prize: fellowship among nations, reduction of standing armies and promotion of peace congresses.
Tybring-Gjedde is a member of Norway’s right-wing, populist Progress Party. He has repeatedly expressed Islamophobic and anti-immigration views over the years. He claimed that Muslims were driving “cultural Norwegians” out of Oslo neighbourhoods and that Muslims should take a vow to “our” Christian state.
Tybring-Gjedde, with party colleague Per-Willy Amundsen, nominated Trump for the 2019 Peace Prize for his talks with North Korea.
On the podcast, Tybring-Gjedde said Trump was a peacemaker and that other people received Nobel prizes without scrutiny of their personal records. “You don’t ask for the personality of the people – you ask for the performance of the people,” he said. “And Donald J Trump has performed very well internationally.”
Host Jon Decker asked if Tybring-Gjedde if he was a fan of the president. The politician defended Trump’s domestic record, saying he was doing well at creating jobs for “minorities and women”, but had been hit by Covid-19 and the Black Lives Matter movement.
“Every morning in Norway we wake up to something negative about President Trump,” he said. He added he thought it might be helpful to potential voters in the US to know that there were some people in Europe who thought Trump was doing a good job.
Many people can nominate someone for a peace prize, including any member of a national assembly. The final decision is made by the five-person Norwegian Nobel Committee. There were 318 candidates for the 2020 Peace Prize, whose winner will be announced on October 9.
The most recent American recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize is former president Barack Obama, who received it in 2009 – less than a year into his eight-year presidency.