Video clips showing Donald Trump repeating his claim that he had ended “eight wars” during a White House press briefing earlier this year have resurfaced.
The U.S. president previously took aim at Barack Obama while arguing that he, not Obama, deserved a Nobel Peace Prize.
At 79, the Republican has frequently criticized the former president, now 64, particularly over his Nobel recognition.
Obama received the Nobel Peace Prize in October 2009, less than nine months into his first term, with the Norwegian Nobel Committee citing his “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples,” especially his work on nuclear nonproliferation and foreign relations.
Trump, however, has never been awarded the prize, despite openly expressing his desire to win it and asserting that he earned it by ending “eight wars”—a claim that critics have challenged.
Trump’s criticism of Obama and his Nobel Peace Prize
In a White House video from January of this year, which is now doing the rounds once again on social media, he can be heard declaring: “Whether people like Trump or don’t like Trump, I settled eight wars.
“Big ones. Some going on for 36 years, 32 years, 31 years, 28 years, 25 years. Some just getting ready to start like India and Pakistan.
“I got it done in rapid order without nuclear weapons. I can’t think of anyone in history who should get the Nobel Prize more than me, and I don’t want to be bragging but nobody else settled wars!”
His rant continued: “Obama got the Nobel Prize, he had no idea why. He still has no idea. He walks around and says, ‘I got the Nobel Prize’. Why did he get a Nobel Prize?
“He got it almost immediately upon attaining office and he didn’t do anything and he was a bad president.
“So, uh, I mean you should get the Nobel Prize for every war you stop, major wars. These were wars that nobody thought could be stopped.
“President Putin called me, he said about two of the wars he’s been trying to stop them for 10 years, he wasn’t able to do it. He couldn’t believe it. So in theory you should get the Nobel Prize for every war you stop. Every one of them was major.”
Trump then concluded: “But I don’t care about that. What I care about is saving lives. I’ve saved tens of millions of lives.”
Why hasn’t Trump received a Peace Prize?
Steven Cheung, White House Director of Communications, previously claimed that the reason why Trump didn’t receive the Nobel Peace Prize was all down to politics, and that those in charge of electing a person to secure the award did not want Trump to win.
He said: “The Nobel Committee proved they place politics over peace. President Trump will continue making peace deals around the world, ending wars, and saving lives. He has the heart of a humanitarian, and there will never be anyone like him who can move mountains with the sheer force of his will.”
Nobel Committee chair Jørgen Watne Frydnes previously issued a statement on the decision
When Frydnes was asked about Trump’s claims that it would be an insult to the US not to award him the prize, and why he wasn’t chosen, he alluded that media presence and campaigns would get nowhere with the committee.
“In the long history of the Nobel Peace Prize, I think this committee has seen many types of campaign, media attention,” Frydnes said. “We receive thousands and thousands of letters every year from people wanting to say what, for them, leads to peace.
“This committee sits in a room filled with the portraits of all laureates, and that room is filled with both courage and integrity. So we base only our decision on the work and the will of Alfred Nobel,” he added.