Trump Goes To War for Peace Prize: President Vies With Carney, Pope And Greta

President Trump? Prime Minister Mark Carney? Pope Leo XIV? Greta Thunberg? The list of peace Nobel candidates is strewn with the sublime and the ridiculous — as at times is the prize itself. Among the heavyweights who could be named Nobel laureate by the Oslo-based Nobel committee on Friday is Pope Leo, nominated “for his focus on humility, service, and climate action.” Those attributes are heavily favored at Oslo. While three Catholic figures have won in the past, including Mother Teresa, no pope was ever favored by the secular-oriented committee. The current Vatican leader’s politics, though, could change that history. Mr. Carney’s Nobel hopes are hinged on the same attributes that won him more than 65 percent approval in Canadian popularity polls: He’s the anti-Trump. Canucks — and presumably Norwegians — are enraged by tariffs and our president’s constant jibes, including a semi-serious call to make Canada the 51st state. Yet “there’s never been anybody in the history of the Nobel Prize that deserves it more,” Mr. Trump told reporters Wednesday. “I settled eight wars and I’ve stopped maybe the total obliteration of the world because Iran will never have a nuclear weapon.” For a second year in a row the president is vying for the prize even as he indicates his chances are slim. According to the betting site Kalshi, Mr. Carney’s odds of becoming a Nobel laureate are as low as 0.9 percent. Mr. Trump’s are 0.8 percent. The president is likely to be unsatisfied with a White House gesture from last year’s winner, Maria Corina Machado. Citing the president’s “unique commitment” to freedom in Venezuela in January, Ms. Machado handed over the Nobel medal to her host. On the betting site Polymarket, the leading candidate — a Sudanese humanitarian outfit — is listed at mere 15 percent odds to win. That means 85 percent of bettors are rooting against it to receive the prize. For whatever it’s worth, the outfit, Sudan Emergency Response Rooms, fits Oslo’s lofty goals. The grassroots Sudanese group provides humanitarian aid to locals who are suffering in a war that, while most deadly among current active military clashes, gets insufficient world attention. If the Committee tries instead to follow the headlines, it could award the prize to some always favored anti-Israel candidates. A Norwegian politician, Frøya Sjursæther, nominated Ms. Thunberg for her “efforts for Gaza, climate, and indigenous peoples.” The star of the former Swede “it girl,” though, seems to dim these days. Another Norwegian politician, Marie Sneve Martinussen, nominated a United Nations gadfly, Francesca Albanese. The Italian UN rapporteur, infamous for anti-Israel diatribes, has most recently tried to claim that Nazi death camps were actually designed to kill Muslims. And if antisemitism fails to disqualify Ms. Albanese, recent advocacy against arming Ukraine will.The war at the heart of Europe weighs heavily on the Norwegians. President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine is mentioned as a likely Nobel winner, as is Mykola Kuleba, for his efforts to save Ukrainian children. Several Russian dissidents, including the wife of late Alexei Navalny, Yulia Navalnaya, are nominated while no fans of President Vladimir Putin are on anyone’s list.When in doubt, the Nobel committee often rewards global organizations. A Norwegian politician, Even Eriksen, nominated the UN-affiliated International Court of Justice and the separate Hague-based International Criminal Court for the prize. While all eyes are on the ICC’s arrest warrants against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the ICJ is quietly redefining genocide, so it can accuse Israel of violating the convention against that crime. The peace prize is widely coveted, even as history is full of Nobelists who suffered misfortunes after being honored at Oslo.One Nobel hopeful, Winnie Mandela, strongly criticized — and then divorced — her husband, South Africa’s anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela. She resented him for accepting the prize alongside F.W. de Klerk in 1993. Anwar Sadat, who won the Nobel in 1978 alongside Menachem Begin for ending Egypt’s enmity with Israel, was assassinated in 1981 by opponents of the peace treaty that won him the prize.After winning the Nobel in 1991, Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi abetted the country’s ruling junta in the brutal oppression and ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya minority. The Junta then placed her under house arrest. A year after becoming the latest laureate, Ms. Machado is yet to return to Venezuela, let alone run in a free election.

Trump Goes To War for Peace Prize: President Vies With Carney, Pope And Greta

Trump Goes To War for Peace Prize: President Vies With Carney, Pope And Greta

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