Trump Misses Out on Nobel Peace Prize Again as Fifa Honour Looks Set to Be Scrapped
Donald Trump has been overlooked for the Nobel Peace Prize for a second consecutive year, while his Fifa peace prize appears likely to be abolished, leaving him its only winner. The US president's record on Iran and Russia has drawn scrutiny.
Donald Trump has been passed over for the Nobel Peace Prize for the second year running, an omission that has reportedly left the US president frustrated and lashing out at the Norwegian committee responsible for the award. The prize instead went to South African human rights activist Navi Pillay, a choice that appears to have done little to soothe Trump's irritation.
The scale of that frustration has been the subject of considerable commentary, with suggestions that the president's reaction bordered on a declaration of hostilities against Norway itself. While no formal diplomatic rupture has been confirmed, the episode has renewed attention on Trump's long-standing ambition to secure the Nobel, an honour he has frequently implied he deserves.
That claim to the prize rests on a contested record. Trump initiated a war with Iran that he has shown no clear sign of knowing how to conclude, a conflict that has contributed to rising global energy prices. He has also intervened in Russia's war with Ukraine in a manner that appears to side with the aggressor rather than the victim, a stance that sits awkwardly with the stated aims of a peace prize.
The president has further complained that his role in ending eight global conflicts has gone unnoticed. It remains unclear which conflicts he is referring to, as no independent accounting has confirmed the claim. During a press conference at Chequers in 2025, he asserted that he had brought about a lasting peace between Albania and Azerbaijan, an achievement that has not been widely recognised elsewhere.
There is, however, one honour that Trump appears certain to retain: the Fifa peace prize associated with the football governing body's president, Gianni Infantino. That award looks likely to be scrapped altogether, a move that would leave Trump as its only ever winner — a distinction that may prove more durable than the Nobel he has so far been denied.
The episode underscores the unusual intersection of personal ambition, international diplomacy and sporting governance that has come to characterise parts of Trump's public profile. It also highlights the extent to which the Nobel committee's decisions continue to generate political controversy, particularly when the recipient is a figure whose record on conflict and human rights is itself a matter of international debate.
For observers of global affairs, the episode is less about the prize itself than about what it reveals regarding the current state of US foreign policy and its reception abroad. The Norwegian committee's choice of Pillay, a figure with a long record in human rights advocacy, stands in contrast to the profile of a president whose recent interventions have been criticised for exacerbating rather than resolving international tensions.
Whether the Fifa prize's abolition proceeds as expected remains to be seen, but the prospect of Trump becoming its sole recipient carries a certain irony. An award created to celebrate peace in football may end up remembered chiefly for the man who received it once and may never see it awarded again.
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