On October 9, 2026, the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the Peace Prize to Navi Pillay, a former International Criminal Court judge and UN human rights chief. Told of the award, the 85-year-old joked to an applauding crowd, “If you clap a little bit more I may share this prize with Trump,” the BBC reported.
At a rally in Syracuse that evening, Trump said he had never heard of her and that “The United States of America, represented by me as your president, should have received the Nobel Peace Prize, but didn't,” adding, “And this is an indelible stain on the country of Norway and those people that made such a disgraceful and embarrassing decision,” NBC News reported. That night he posted, “I know nothing about this woman, and neither does anyone else!” and said she “very obviously, hates Israel.” He wrote, “I should have won 8 Nobel Peace Prizes, not just 1,” called the decision an “indelible stain on Norway, one that will never be forgotten,” and concluded, “The Nobel 'Peace' Prize has been forever discredited by a handful of Radical Ideologues who are Anti-Democracy, and Enemies of Civilization!”
The Nobel committee is independent of the Norwegian government. The same day, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced full blocking sanctions against the ICC, the court on which Pillay once served, The Hill reported (see Machado Hands Trump Her Nobel Peace Prize Medal at the White House, and He Says He Will Keep It).
Update (October 27, 2026): At a rally in Port Huron, Michigan, on October 25, Trump returned to the prize. Discussing immigration, he said of Denmark, “we'll take them,” then: “Sweden, Norway, I don't think so because I didn't get the Nobel Prize even though I ended it. So I don't want anybody from Norway.” Later he said, “Frankly, Norway sucks. Norway has become a shithouse country, actually,” according to the Roll Call Factbase transcript. Reuters reported there was no indication that the administration was adopting a new official policy on Norwegian immigrants. Norway's foreign minister, Espen Barth Eide, told the broadcaster NRK, “He knows very well that the Nobel committee is independent,” Politico reported.