The president of the United States, Donald Trump, has harshly attacked Norway, the country responsible for the delivery of the Nobel Peace Prize, which he has labeled a "shithole country" after expressing his enormous displeasure at not being awarded the 2026 prize, ultimately granted to South African jurist Navanethem Pillay, former judge of the International Criminal Court (ICC).
During a campaign rally ahead of the midterm elections --scheduled for November 3-- in Port Huron, Michigan, Trump linked his refusal to accept immigrants from Norway (and his preference for citizens from Denmark) solely to the decision made by the Norwegian Nobel Committee.
"I don't want anyone from Norway. I don't want to have anything to do with Norway (...) Frankly, Norway stinks. It has become a shithole country, really," the president proclaimed before the gathered audience, before insisting that he has "resolved eight wars," with "two more on the way."
"I have stopped the nuclear threat from Iran," the U.S. leader continued, who also criticized his predecessor, Barack Obama, for receiving the Nobel Peace Prize just weeks after arriving at the White House in 2009 without knowing "why he got it." "He still has no idea why he received it," he added.
Additionally, he boasted about the gesture of Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner in 2025, María Corina Machado, who, according to her own account, handed him her medal after stating that Trump "has ended many wars and deserves the Nobel Peace Prize more than anyone else."
In an institutional response, Norway's Foreign Minister, Espen Barth Eide, emphasized that Trump "knows very well that the Nobel Committee is independent." "We have reminded him, in case anyone doubts it, and it remains the case," he stated in remarks to the Norwegian public broadcaster NRK.
The same day the award to Pillay was made public, Trump expanded on his social media the list of his supposed international successes, claiming credit for the capture of former Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro, the release of all Israeli hostages held by the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), and the blocking of the Iranian nuclear program.
"Despite all this, the Nobel Prize has been awarded to a liberal person who works at the United Nations and whom no one has ever heard of," Trump censured when referring to Pillay. In his opinion, the prestigious prize "has been discredited forever by a handful of radical ideologues who are antidemocratic and enemies of civilization."