Seven Republican governors are backing President Trump’s nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts with North Korea.
Led by South Carolina Republican Gov. Henry McMaster, the governors sent a letter to the Norwegian Nobel Committee on Monday urging it to consider Trump for the 2019 award.
“After nearly two decades of gridlock and global anxiety surrounding North Korea’s nuclear program, we are now, at last, on the precipice of peace,” the governors wrote. “There is but one new variable: President Donald J. Trump and his successful policy of security through strength. There is no one more deserving of the Nobel Peace Prize.”
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More than a dozen Republicans in Congress formally nominated the president for the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize for his role in helping to improve relations between North and South Korea.
In their letter Monday, the governors said Trump has “achieved an unprecedented victory for global peace and security.”
“The president’s firm stance against nuclearization, coupled with his willingness to engage one-on-one with Pyongyang, has succeeded in opening new avenues of cooperation, friendship, and unity between the two Koreas — and the rest of the world,” they wrote.
Trump is scheduled to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un June 12 in Singapore. If the meeting proceeds as planned, it would mark the first time a sitting U.S. president has met with a North Korean leader.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with Kim for the second time last week and returned to the U.S. from his visit with three Americans who were detained in North Korea.
The White House called their release a “positive gesture of goodwill” ahead of Trump’s meeting with Kim.
The governors praised the president’s strategy for putting pressure on North Korea through sanctions, but said “diplomatic overtures” complemented the effort.
The governors who signed the letter with McMaster are Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey, Guam Gov. Eddie Baza Calvo, Kansas Gov. Jeff Colyer, Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant, Maine Gov. Paul LePage, and West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice.
