A Washington Post-Ipsos poll, conducted between September 11-15, shows that 76 percent of Americans think Trump doesn’t deserve to win the Nobel Peace Prize, compared with 22 percent who think he does.
The overwhelming rejection of Trump’s Nobel Peace Prize ambitions highlights the gap between his self-image and public perception. While Trump has long sought recognition for his foreign policy record, most Americans remain deeply critical of his handling of international conflicts, including Ukraine and Gaza.
It comes as polls have shown Trump’s approval ratings on the decline in recent days. The latest YouGov/Economist poll put his latest approval rating at an all-time low, with 39 percent approving and 57 percent disapproving. The president’s numbers with the pollster last week was 41 percent with a 54 percent disapproval rating.
Newsweek’s tracker currently shows that the president’s net approval rating sits at -10 points, with 44 percent approving and 54 percent disapproving. That is down from -9 points last week, and -8 points the week before.
Meanwhile, the Post-Ipsos poll showed that 43 percent approve of Trump’s job performance, while 56 percent disapprove. That includes 60 percent who give him negative marks on handling the Russia–Ukraine war and 58 percent who disapprove of his approach to the Israel–Hamas conflict in Gaza.
Views on whether he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize are deeply divided along partisan lines: some 49 percent of Republicans say yes while 49 percent say no, compared with just 14 percent of independents and 3 percent of Democrats.
The skepticism is not unique to Trump. The Post-Ipsos poll also found that 54 percent of Americans say former president Barack Obama did not deserve the Nobel Prize he received in 2009—a view echoed at the time by 61 percent in a Gallup/USA Today survey.
Trump has also criticized President Obama’s Nobel Prize, ridiculing it during a 2020 rally. “When Obama got it, he didn’t even—he just said, ‘What did I do?’ He had no idea what he did,” Trump told the crowd, mocking his predecessor’s reaction.
In 2013, Trump tweeted that Obama’s prize should be rescinded. Former Norwegian Nobel Institute Director Geir Lundestad later admitted that “even many of Obama’s supporters believed that the prize was a mistake.”
‘I Won’t Get a Nobel Peace Prize No Matter What I Do’
Trump has openly pursued the award for years, but his efforts have intensified recently. In a speech to the UN General Assembly, he repeated the false claim that he had “solved seven conflicts” worldwide and suggested that brokering peace in Ukraine could earn him the prize.
He also warned that Russia would face “a very strong round of powerful tariffs” if Vladimir Putin refused to negotiate an end to the war. And in June, Trump renewed his long-standing grievance over not being awarded a Nobel Peace Prize.
Posting on Truth Social, he cited a peace deal he said his administration helped broker between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda as evidence of his worthiness, before declaring that he would be overlooked for the honor “no matter what” he accomplishes.
“I won’t get a Nobel Peace Prize for this,” Trump said. He then went on to list other negotiations he claimed his administration led, including “stopping the War between Serbia and Kosovo” and “keeping Peace between Egypt and Ethiopia.”
“No, I won’t get a Nobel Peace Prize no matter what I do, including Russia/Ukraine, and Israel/Iran, whatever those outcomes may be, but the people know, and that’s all that matters to me,” the president wrote.
Several Nominations
Ultimately, the decision rests with the five-member Norwegian Nobel Committee. At least three members have publicly criticized Trump in the past, with Chairman Jorgen Watne Frydnes condemning his attacks on the media during the 2024 campaign and another committee member saying in May that Trump “is well underway in dismantling American democracy,” according to The Washington Post.
Trump has been nominated for the prize several times. In 2023, New York Republican Representative Claudia Tenney nominated him, citing his “historic” Middle East policies. In 2020, far-right Norwegian politician Christian Tybring-Gjedde nominated Trump for his efforts to bring reconciliation between North and South Korea. That same year, Swedish MP Magnus Jacobsson nominated him for brokering a deal to normalize relations between Serbia and Kosovo.
The following year, Swedish nationalist MP Laura Huhtasaari and a group of Australian lawmakers nominated Trump for his role in negotiating the Abraham Accords. However, the prize was awarded to Filipino and Russian journalists Maria Ressa and Dmitry Muratov “for their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace.”
And in March 2025, California Republican Representative Darrell Issa said he intended to nominate Trump for the prize.
This year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner will be announced in October. (Newsweek)