Trump criticises Nobel committee after 2026 peace prize goes to Navi Pillay

US President Donald Trump said the United States, or he personally, should have received the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize, which was awarded on Friday 9 October 2026 to South African jurist Navi Pillay, a former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. According to Salon and The Times of India, Trump made his remarks in a post on Truth Social on Friday, with Salon reporting he repeated his complaints on Saturday morning. The Guardian US and the New York Post reported comparable remarks delivered the same day at a rally in Syracuse, New York, held for Republican candidates. Pillay was recognised for work advancing international justice and accountability for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, according to The Times of India, and for decades of work advancing international law and accountability for atrocities, according to Salon. She chaired a UN commission that concluded Israel committed genocide in Gaza, according to The Guardian US and Salon; Salon reported that Israel rejects those findings.

Trump said he should have received eight Nobel Peace Prizes rather than one, according to Salon, and the New York Post reported him saying, "We should have had eight Nobel Prizes for each war." The Times of India reported him writing that he had settled eight wars and was close to ending or settling two more, and that he had secured the return of all Israeli hostages including a final group of 28, both living and dead, as well as hundreds of hostages from other countries.

In the accounts given by The Times of India and The Guardian US, Trump listed conflicts he said he had resolved, including India-Pakistan, Israel-Hamas and Israel-Iran. The Times of India reported that he also claimed to have won a war in Venezuela and captured its "violent dictator", and to have prevented Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. The Guardian US reported him saying he was about to settle or win two more conflicts, Iran and Russia-Ukraine, and quoting him as saying of Iran that it would be "very quick one way or the other: that they give us everything or they don't exist any longer."

Regarding Pillay, Salon reported Trump writing that he knew nothing about her and did not know what she had done, and The Guardian US quoted him describing the winner as a liberal person working at the United Nations whom nobody had heard of. The New York Post quoted him calling her a "mystery person" and saying, "I never heard of this particular person, but congratulations anyway." Salon and The Times of India reported that he accused her of being opposed to Israel, an apparent reference to her leadership of a UN commission that concluded Israel committed genocide in Gaza.

Trump described the decision as an indelible stain on Norway and said the prize had been forever discredited by radical ideologues who are anti-democracy and enemies of civilisation, according to Salon, The Times of India, The Guardian US and the New York Post. The Guardian US and the New York Post quoted him adding, "we will not forget, Norway." Salon reported that the Norwegian Nobel Committee operates independently of Norway's government, and the New York Post described it as a five-person committee.

In her first public comments after learning of the award, made during a visit to the Nuremberg court in Germany, Pillay joked that if colleagues did not stop clapping she was going to share the prize with Trump, then laughed, according to The Guardian US. The New York Post reported that she spoke at the Nuremberg Forum in Nuremberg, Germany, after the announcement.

Salon reported that Trump's assertion of having settled eight wars is disputed, with some conflicts unresolved and his role in others contested. The Times of India reported that India has consistently rejected his claims of mediation in the India-Pakistan ceasefire, maintaining that the understanding was reached after Pakistan's Director General of Military Operations contacted his Indian counterpart. The Guardian US reported that some of the conflicts he listed were not wars and some remain unsettled, and that US intelligence agencies reported to Congress in 2025 that Iran had suspended its pursuit of nuclear weapons in 2003.

Where sources differ

• The sources describe different settings for Trump's remarks: Salon and The Times of India report a Truth Social post on Friday (Salon adds a renewed complaint on Saturday morning), while The Guardian US and the New York Post report remarks at a rally in Syracuse, New York. None of the sources states whether these were the same statements or separate ones.
• The Guardian US states that Trump "started a war with Iran" and cites US intelligence reporting to Congress in 2025 that Iran suspended its nuclear weapons pursuit in 2003, while all sources report Trump's own claim that he stopped Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and is close to settling or winning the Iran conflict. The sources do not reconcile these accounts.
• Salon reports Trump said he should have won "8 Nobel Peace Prizes, not just 1"; the New York Post reports him saying he deserved eight medals and that there should have been eight Nobel Prizes, one for each war. The sources do not agree on a single formulation of the claim.

• No source contains any response from the Norwegian Nobel Committee or its members to Trump's remarks.
• No source lists all eight conflicts Trump says he settled; only India-Pakistan, Israel-Hamas and Israel-Iran are named in any source.
• No source independently verifies Trump's claims about a war in Venezuela, the capture of a "violent dictator", the return of hostages, or the status of the Iran and Russia-Ukraine conflicts.
• No source contains comment from any other US official or from the White House beyond Trump's own statements.
• No source establishes the full wording of Trump's Truth Social post or whether the rally remarks repeated it verbatim.
• Pillay is not reported as addressing Trump's specific criticisms of her record or of the UN commission she chaired.

1. Salon — original — by CK Smith
2. The Times of India — by VIVEK DUBEY
3. The Guardian US — by Robert Mackey
4. New York Post — by Victor Nava

Read the original at Salon

• Shedeur Sanders says in Cosmopolitan interview he wants to change how the public sees him
• Northern Lights seen across the UK, reaching as far south as Kent
• Hurricane Isaias kills at least four and cuts power to hundreds of thousands across the southeastern US
• Christa Pike returned to Tennessee prison after surviving failed lethal injection, lawyers say
• Firefighters rescue driver trapped in car submerged in Norwich brook
• Indian police detain protesters in Delhi as 'Cockroach' movement presses demand for election chief's resignation