Donald Trump has lashed out and complained again that he did not win the Nobel Peace Prize after it was awarded to an ex-UN human rights chief. Navi Pillay, a South African-born International Criminal Court jurist and former UN human rights chief, won the prize for her efforts to promote international law, on Friday.
President Calls Decision 'Disgraceful and Embarrassing'
The US President raged at the committee as he called this year's decision "disgraceful and embarrassing" at a rally. Trump also rallied against Pillay, who he called a "mystery person" that he had "never heard of". The US President even hit out at Norway, where the committee is based, and said the decision was an "indelible stain on the country" before adding "we will not forget".
Norway's Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, last year, explained to Trump that the committee was independent and based in Norway, adding that it was not part of the Norwegian government.
Rally Remarks and Truth Social Tirade
Trump, speaking to his supporters at a rally in Syracuse, New York, said: "Today they gave out the Nobel Peace Prize to a person – I never heard of the person. Nobody did. It's a mystery person." He added: "I never heard of this particular person, but congratulations anyway."
The President then repeated his claims that he has ended eight wars and was about to "settle or win two more". He said: "The Nobel Peace Prize has been forever discredited by a handful of radical ideologues who are anti-democracy and really enemies of civilisation."
The chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Jorgen Watne Frydnes, announced Pillay's win in Oslo, Norway, as part of the peace prize's 125th anniversary. He said her work "is a source of hope and inspiration to all those who seek to bring about a more peaceful world". Mr Watne Frydnes added that Ms Pillay's award was a message to those seeking to undermine "the international rules-based system and the institutions".
Sanctions on International Criminal Court
Trump continued his tirade against Pillay and the Nobel Peace Prize on Truth Social in a long post that said: "I know nothing about this woman, and neither does anyone else! In fact, to the best of my knowledge, no one ever heard of her other than the fact that she, very obviously, hates Israel. I don’t know what the woman has done."
Hours after Pillay won the prize, the Trump administration imposed sweeping new sanctions on the International Criminal Court. This also comes as part of the administration's campaign to dismantle the tribunal over investigations into the United States and its allies, including Israel. Secretary of state Marco Rubio announced the sanctions on Friday and said: "We will ban transactions with this rogue court, cutting off their resources and crippling its ability to operate against us. The United States and the American people are not subject to the jurisdiction of this fake ICC."
Trump issued a similar attack on the Nobel Peace Prize last year after it was awarded to Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado for her struggle to achieve a democratic transition in the South American nation. Ms Machado gave Mr Trump her Nobel medal shortly after the United States ousted then-president Nicolas Maduro. But it was largely a symbolic gesture as the Nobel Committee has said the honour itself cannot be transferred.
