President Trump said Friday that he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe because of his talks with North Korea, although Trump said he doesn’t expect to win the prize in October.
“I’ll probably never get it. That’s okay. They gave it to Obama, and he didn’t know what he got it for. With me, I probably will never get it,” Trump said during a Rose Garden press conference. “We do a lot of good work. This administration does a tremendous job. We don’t get credit for it.”
The Norwegian Nobel Committee received 304 nominations for this year, and 219 individuals and 85 groups are now under consideration. The committee accepts submissions from a small group of eligible government officials, academics, and civic leaders.
“Prime Minister Abe of Japan gave me the most beautiful copy of a letter that he sent to the people who give out a thing called a Nobel Prize. He said I have nominated you on behalf of Japan. I am asking them to give you the Nobel Peace Prize. I said, ‘Thank you,” Trump said.
“Many other people feel that way, too,” Trump added, citing his effort to stall a Syrian government-led offensive in Idlib province, Syria, where a former al Qaeda affiliate and rival Turkish-backed Islamists hold power. He said that his efforts “saved a lot of people.”
“I stopped the slaughter of perhaps 3 million people. Nobody talked about that. They don’t talk about that. Russia and Iran and Syria were going to go in and perhaps destroy 3 million people in order to get terrorists,” Trump said. “I put out a statement that you better not do it. In all fairness to Russia and Iran and Syria, they didn’t attack or they’re doing it surgically at least.”
Abe, who visited the White House last year, has publicly praised Trump for cooling tensions with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Trump is preparing to meet Kim in Vietnam later this month, for a second summit following their initial Singapore meeting in June.
“Abe gave me — it’s the most beautiful five-page letter. Nobel Prize. He sent it to them. Do you know why?” Trump said. “Because he had rocket ships and he had missiles flying over Japan. They had alarms going off. You know that. All of a sudden they feel good. They feel safe. I did that.”
The Nobel Peace Prize comes with a cash award of $1.1 million, though recipients often donate the money to charity.
Obama won the prize in 2009 during his first year in office. Although the Norwegian Nobel Committee cited his “vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons,” Obama later proposed cutting nuclear nonproliferation budgets while proposing $1 trillion over 30 years to rebuild old nuclear weapons.
