‘I settled eight wars’: Trump renews push for Nobel Peace Prize

US President Donald Trump has again made the case for winning the Nobel Peace Prize, citing what he claims are eight wars he helped stop through direct intervention.

Speaking to reporters after a meeting with oil and gas executives in Washington, Trump highlighted his role in halting a brief but intense flare-up between India and Pakistan in May 2025.

“Whether people like Trump or don’t like Trump, I settled eight wars — big ones,” he said.

Trump said the India-Pakistan situation was defused swiftly after several fighter jets were shot down, warning that the conflict was on the brink of escalation.

“Some were going on for 36 years, 32 years, 31 years… and some were just getting ready to start, like India and Pakistan, where already eight jets were shot out in the air,” he said, adding that the ceasefire was achieved “in rapid order, without nuclear weapons”.

He later recalled a September Oval Office meeting with Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, claiming the leader publicly credited him with saving “a minimum of 10 million lives”.

According to a BBC report cited by Trump, the conflicts he claims to have de-escalated include the two-year Israel-Hamas war, as well as tensions between Israel and Iran, India and Pakistan, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, Thailand and Cambodia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, Egypt and Ethiopia, and Serbia and Kosovo.

While some of these confrontations lasted only days, they stemmed from long-running disputes. Whether the resulting agreements have endured remains a subject of debate.

“In theory, you should get the Nobel Prize for every war you stopped,” Trump said. “But I don’t care about that; I care about saving lives. I’ve saved tens of millions of lives.”

Trump also revisited former president Barack Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize win, questioning the rationale behind the award.

“I can’t think of anybody in history that should get the Nobel Prize more than me,” he said. “Obama got the Nobel Prize. He had no idea why. He still has no idea.”

He added that Russian President Vladimir Putin had once told him he had failed for years to stop two of the conflicts Trump claimed to have resolved.

Trump repeated similar assertions during an event at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida in December, again pointing to the India-Pakistan standoff.

He praised Pakistan’s Chief of Defence Forces, Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir, calling him a “highly respected general”, and repeated his claim that the conflict could have cost millions of lives.

Trump’s comments come as he prepares to meet Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado next week — and she has offered to share her Nobel Peace Prize with him. The US president said it would be a “great honour” to accept the award from her.

Machado made the offer during an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity, after reports that relations between the two had cooled since she won the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize — an accolade Trump had publicly sought himself.

“I’ve stopped eight wars,” Trump told Hannity, echoing his broader argument for why he should be recognised with such an honour.

In the same Fox News interview, Machado praised Trump’s leadership and thanked him for what she described as a “courageous mission” on behalf of Venezuela.

“On behalf of the Venezuelan people, I would like to express how grateful we are,” she said, adding: “I would like to share the Nobel Prize with Trump.”

Trump later responded directly to the suggestion: “If such an offer were made, it would be a great honour.”

Days after the back‑and‑forth aired, the Nobel committee issued a clarification, noting in a press release that once a Nobel Peace Prize is awarded, “the decision remains permanent” and cannot be transferred. While the statement did not name Machado, it was widely interpreted as a response to her suggestion that the prize could be shared with Trump.

The committee also reiterated that it does not comment on laureates’ actions after receiving the prize but continues to monitor their subsequent activities.

Trump has previously questioned Machado’s political standing in Venezuela, saying she lacks sufficient support to lead the country. The US currently backs Delcy Rodríguez as acting president following a military operation in which US forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and brought him to the United States on drug charges.

Trump has also suggested Norway played a role in awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to Machado instead of him — a claim Norwegian officials have denied.

“I think it’s been a major embarrassment,” Trump said, referring to the Nobel committee.

With inputs from AFP, ANI