Trump calls Nobel winner Navi Pillay someone ‘nobody has ever heard of’ at Syracuse rally
The president said the prize had been “forever discredited” and told Norway he would not forget the snub.
Donald Trump has once again criticized the Norwegian Nobel Committee after being passed over for the Nobel Peace Prize, this time on the same day the 2026 winner was announced. At a rally in Syracuse, New York, on Friday, held to support Republican candidates ahead of the midterms, Trump spent a large part of his speech attacking Norway over the decision.
Trump has repeatedly claimed that he has ended eight wars, and he has said that both the Russia-Ukraine war and the United States’ war with Iran will be over soon. He has made similar promises about Russia and Ukraine since before returning to office in January 2025, and neither conflict has ended.
The 2026 prize went to Navi Pillay, a South African jurist and former United Nations human rights chief, and Trump made his frustration with the choice clear from the stage. He argued that the United States, represented by him as president, should have received the award instead.
Trump blames Norway for making the decision not to give him the prize
While he made his speech at the rally, Trump had a lot to say about Norway. He said, “The Nobel Peace Prize has been forever discredited by a handful of radical ideologues who are anti-democracy and really enemies of civilization.”
When discussing the war with Iran, Trump said, “Iran will be very quick one way or the other: that they give us everything or they don’t exist any longer.” The remark follows his earlier comment that Iran can “take out” Los Angeles and San Diego. Meanwhile, an Iranian official disputed Trump’s ceasefire announcement, and no lasting agreement has been reached since the war began earlier this year.
Trump went on to say, “Despite all of this and all of these unbelievable accomplishments, the Nobel Prize was given out today to a liberal person who works at the United Nations, who nobody has ever heard of.”
One of his claims was that he stopped Iran from having nuclear weapons, but U.S. intelligence reported to Congress in 2025 that Iran stopped its nuclear weapons program in 2003.
Meet Navi Pillay, the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize winner
The 2026 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Navi Pillay. Pillay served as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights from 2008 to 2014 and later chaired the UN commission of inquiry that concluded in 2025 that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza, a finding Israel rejects. The Nobel Committee awarded her the prize for her efforts to promote peace and international law.
In its announcement, the Nobel Committee said Pillay’s “commitment to universal legal principles and her firm moral compass are constants in a long career.”
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