(NBC News)- President Donald Trump lamented that the Norwegian Nobel Committee chose not to award him with its annual Peace Prize on Friday, telling rallygoers the decision leaves “an indelible stain on the country of Norway.”
Speaking at a rally in Syracuse to boost New York Republicans, Trump listed off all of the accomplishments he believes have earned him the right to win the Nobel Peace Prize, including efforts to end or prevent conflicts in Africa and Asia and for having “saved more lives than anyone in history.”
Earlier Friday, the committee awarded the prize to Navi Pillay, an 85-year-old South African legal pioneer who led a United Nations panel that concluded Israel committed genocide in Gaza.
“I’ve never heard of the person,” Trump said. “I know a lot of people. I never heard of this particular person, but congratulations, anyway. … The United States of America, represented by me as your president, should have received the Nobel Peace Prize, but didn’t.”
“And this is an indelible stain on the country of Norway and those people that made such a disgraceful and embarrassing decision,” Trump continued. “The Nobel Peace Prize has been forever discredited by a handful of radical ideologues who are antidemocracy and really enemies of civilization, and we will not forget Norway, that you didn’t give this prize with the greatest record in history.”
The president added that he should have received eight Nobel Peace Prizes for his efforts because he claimed to have ended eight ongoing conflicts. The president did not mention the war in Ukraine, which has raged on through his presidency as his administration has failed to bring the conflict to an end. And in the Middle East, the president earlier this year launched an ongoing war with Iran.
Trump said the committee’s choice to award the prize to Pillay “is just another sign of how Norway and all these others are ripping off our country.”
Throughout his second term, the president has made clear his ambition to secure a Nobel Peace Prize, and his allies have said he deserves it for efforts to end the war in Gaza in addition to other conflicts. Earlier this year, Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, the 2025 winner, offered to share her prize with him as she sought his support for her efforts in Venezuela after the Trump administration removed President Nicolás Maduro from power.
After learning of her award at a law gathering in Germany on Friday, Pillay joked to the crowd: “If you clap a little bit more, I may share this prize with Trump.”
The president was in Syracuse to boost the candidacy of GOP gubernatorial nominee Bruce Blakeman and state Republicans. He shouted out Saritha Komatireddy, the Republican nominee for state attorney general too, before attacking sitting state Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat he has often clashed with.
“And on Election Day, New Yorkers should tell both [Gov. Kathy] Hochul and that disgusting Letitia dog — she’s a dog — you’re fired, get the hell out of here.”
The Trump administration has so far failed multiple times in its efforts to prosecute James, who spearheaded an investigation into his business dealings that led to a state judge ruling he had conspired to manipulate his net worth and ordering him to pay a fine of more than $350 million. The fine was later thrown out on appeal by a state court.
“Donald Trump is in Syracuse supporting the only attorney general candidate who clerked for Brett Kavanaugh, the man who ended Roe v. Wade,” a James campaign spokesperson said in response to the president’s comments. “The contrast is crystal clear and we welcome it.”
