With the world’s attention turning to Oslo for the announcement of the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize, US President Donald Trump has launched a stunning and preemptive rhetorical strike, not against a current nominee, but against a past winner: his predecessor, Barack Obama.
In a scathing rebuke from the Oval Office, the president questioned the very legitimacy of Obama’s 2009 prize, declaring he received it for “doing nothing” but “destroying the country.”
The attack, delivered just hours before a new laureate is to be named, is the latest and most forceful expression of Trump’s long-simmering grievance that his own peacemaking efforts have been unjustly overlooked by a biased establishment.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, the president did not hold back in his assessment of the prize awarded to Obama barely eight months into his first term.
“He got it for doing nothing. Obama got a prize – he didn’t even know what – he got elected, and they gave it to Obama for doing absolutely nothing but destroying our country,” Trump said.
The Nobel committee, in 2009, had cited Obama’s “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.”
But Trump dismissed this, framing the award as a premature and undeserved honor for a president he believes was not a good leader.
A prize deserved, a prize denied
This sharp critique of his predecessor is inextricably linked to Trump’s own deep-seated belief that he is the one who truly deserves the world’s most prestigious prize for peace.
Speaking at the United Nations last month, he touted his own foreign policy successes, claiming to have ended seven “un-endable” wars.
“I’ve stopped eight wars, so that’s never happened before – but they’ll have to do what they do. Whatever they do is fine. I know this: I didn’t do it for that, I did it because I saved a lot of lives,” he added.
His frustration with the Nobel committee is a recurring theme. During a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in February, he was even more blunt.
“They will never give me a Nobel Peace Prize. It’s too bad. I deserve it, but they will never give it to me,” Trump said.
That grievance was later met with a show of support from Netanyahu, who, according to USA Today, nominated the US president for the prize.
The committee’s complicated legacy
While Trump’s attack is the most vitriolic, criticism of the 2009 decision is not new. Geir Lundestad, the former secretary of the Nobel Committee, later admitted that the award did not have the intended effect.
He explained that the committee had hoped the prize would strengthen Obama’s efforts, but that the plan didn’t work out as hoped. He acknowledged that even many of Obama’s own supporters felt the award was premature.
Now, as the world waits for the Nobel committee to make its announcement at 2:30 p.m. IST on Friday.
However, the president’s preemptive strike has ensured that no matter who wins this year’s prize, the conversation will be haunted by the ghost of a past decision and the lingering grievance of a president who believes his own moment of recognition has been stolen.
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