US President Donald Trump has denounced the decision to award the Nobel Peace Prize to South African judge and human rights champion Navi Pillay, calling the choice “disgraceful” and insisting that he should have received the award.
Addressing supporters at a rally in Syracuse, New York, on Friday, Trump described the Norwegian Nobel Committee’s decision as “a disgraceful and embarrassing decision” that leaves “an indelible stain on the country of Norway”. He also said he had “never heard of” Pillay before the announcement, reports AFP.
“I never heard of this particular person, but congratulations anyway,” Trump told the rally. “The United States of America, represented by me as your president, should have received the Nobel Peace Prize, but didn’t”.
Pillay was named the laureate on Friday in recognition of her extensive work against war crimes and crimes against humanity. The prestigious award includes a gold medal, a diploma and a cash prize of $1.2 million.
Reacting to her win, Pillay joked to an applauding crowd about sharing the award with the US leader.
“If you clap a little bit more, I may share this prize with Trump,” she remarked.
Her comment appeared to refer to Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who handed her Nobel gold medal to Trump after receiving the prize last year.
Trump also launched a broader attack on the awarding authorities, declaring: “The Nobel Peace Prize has been forever discredited by a handful of radical ideologues who are anti-democracy and really enemies of civilisation”.
Since returning to the White House in January 2025, Trump has openly expressed his desire to win the Nobel Peace Prize.
Experts in Oslo, speaking before Pillay’s selection, cited several factors that they said disqualified him from receiving the honour. These included his war against Iran, his territorial expansion ambitions regarding Greenland, his hard-line stance on migrants, and his attacks on multilateralism and the press.
