



Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told President Donald Trump on Monday that he recommended him for the Nobel Peace Prize, handing the U.S. leader the letter he said he sent the Nobel committee.
Trump has been nominated several times by people within the U.S. as well as politicians abroad — but that’s only one small step in the secretive process.
Trump’s nominators have included a group of House Republicans and two Norwegian lawmakers. The groups separately nominated him in 2018 for his work to ease nuclear tensions with North Korea. One of the Norwegians nominated him again for the 2021 prize for his efforts in the Middle East, as did a Swedish lawmaker.
Not all of the nominations have been valid: The Norwegian Nobel Committee, which selects the prize winners, said in 2018 that someone using a stolen identity had nominated Trump at least twice.
Nominations can be made by a select group of people and organizations, including heads of state or politicians serving at a national level, university professors, directors of foreign policy institutes, past Nobel Prize recipients and members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee itself.
A person cannot nominate themselves, according to the committee.
Nominations must be submitted before Feb. 1 each year — meaning any recent Netanyahu nomination would be for the 2026 prize. The winners are announced every October, with award ceremonies taking place on Dec. 10, the anniversary of Nobel’s death.
The prizes in medicine, physics, chemistry, literature and peace were established by the will of Alfred Nobel, a wealthy Swedish industrialist and the inventor of dynamite. An economics prize was later established by Sweden’s central bank and is presented at the same time.
According to Nobel’s wishes, the peace prize should go to “the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.”
Former President Barack Obama won the peace prize in 2009, barely nine months into his first term. It was met with fierce criticism by conservatives in the U.S., where many argued Obama had not been in office long enough to have an impact worthy of the Nobel.
Former President Jimmy Carter won a Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for work he did after leaving the White House.