President Donald Trump claimed Tuesday it would be a “big insult” to the United States if he was not awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
At a rare gathering of top U.S. military commanders, Trump used the platform for his usual rhetoric of attacking his political rivals and making bold claims about his own accomplishments. He argued that he deserved a Nobel Peace Prize due to his claim that he will have solved “eight” wars since the start of his second term.
He referenced the peace plan for the Israel-Hamas conflict that he unveiled on Monday. He said if militant group Hamas agrees to the deal, he will have solved “eight” wars.
“So if this works out, we’ll have eight, eight in eight months. That’s pretty good. Nobody’s ever done that,” he said.
“‘Will you get the Nobel Prize?’ Absolutely not. They’ll give it to some guy that didn’t do a damn thing. They’ll give it to a guy that wrote a book about the mind of Donald Trump and what it took to solve the wars,” Trump continued.
“But we’ll see what happens. But it’s a big insult to our country. I will tell you that I don’t want it. I want the country to get it. We should get it, because there’s never been anything like it,” he added.
Trump has repeatedly claimed that he deserved a Nobel Peace Prize for dealing with international conflicts since the start of his second term. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Trump that he would nominate him for the award when the two leaders met at the White House in July.
Trump spoke at the gathering after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth delivered remarks about military standards and ending “woke” culture in the Pentagon.
Meetings between top military brass and civilian leaders are nothing new, but the gathering had fueled intense speculation about the summit’s purpose given the haste with which it was called and the mystery surrounding it.
Admirals and generals from conflict zones in the Middle East and elsewhere were summoned for a lecture on race and gender in the military, underscoring the extent to which the country’s culture wars have emerged as a front-and-center agenda item for Hegseth’s Pentagon, even at a time of broad national security concerns across the globe.
The president also warned that “America is under invasion from within.”
“After spending trillions of dollars defending the borders of foreign countries, with your help we’re defending the borders of our country,” Trump said.