Less than a year into his second term, President Donald Trump’s work on the international stage has earned him commendations for the Nobel Peace Prize from multiple world leaders.
The president has this year received formal nominations for the award from two foreign leaders, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and a foreign government, Pakistan. Last week, Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan pledged at a peace summit at the White House to write a joint recommendation letter for Trump.
The Nobel Peace Prize is scheduled to be announced on October 10. The president has denied “politicking” for the award and cast doubt on his viability to win it as he is “of a certain persuasion.”
Regardless, the president has built up a resume to compete and has endorsements from world leaders backing his nomination.
The Abraham Accords
Carrying through on work he began in his first term, Trump has moved forward with the Abraham Accords to normalize relations between Israel and its surrounding Arab neighbors.
Bahrain, Morocco, and the United Arab Emirates signed bilateral agreements with the Jewish state in 2020. Discussions have begun with Syria to enter the accords after the fall of the Assad regime, while the Trump administration is still making efforts to bring Saudi Arabia into the partnership.
The accords have reshaped dynamics in the Middle East, threatening to isolate Iran, the world’s leading state sponsor of terror, from its Arab neighbors. Hamas, an Iranian-backed terror group in Gaza, attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, which forced Saudi Arabia to pause efforts to join the Abraham Accords.
Dismantling Iran’s Nuclear Program
The progress on the Abraham Accords is separate from the Trump administration and Israel’s joint destruction of Iran’s nuclear program. Following years of attacks from Iranian proxies and direct attacks from Iran itself, Israel struck back at Iran and launched the 12-Day War on June 13.
Over the course of nearly two weeks, Israel waged an almost entirely one-sided war against Iran that devastated the terror state’s military and nuclear program. The United States capped the destruction of Iran’s nuclear program on June 21, bombing three key sites at Fordo, Natanz, and Isfahan. The Pentagon has estimated that the strikes by the United States and Israel have set Iran’s nuclear program back years.
Pax Trumpana
Trump has helped broker five peace agreements or ceasefires since taking office in January, in addition to two other conflicts in which he intervened during the final year of his first term.
Last week, Trump hosted the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan at the White House. Azerbaijan President Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Pashinyan signed a peace deal, and both leaders expressed optimism in ending 35 years of hostilities.
“Now they’re friends, and they’re going to be friends for a long time,” said Trump.
In the past three months, the White House has claimed victory in de-escalating tensions between Thailand and Cambodia and between India and Pakistan. Trump was also instrumental in brokering ceasefires between Rwanda-backed militants and Congo, as well as between Israel and Iran.
In 2020, the first Trump administration intervened between Serbia and Kosovo, which declared independence from Serbia in 2008 but has yet to be recognized by Serbia as an independent state. Trump’s intervention led the two parties to sign an economic normalization agreement in a White House ceremony in September 2020.
That same year, Trump intervened in a dispute between Egypt and Ethiopia over a dam project that had Egyptian leaders concerned about the impact on the Nile River. The Ethiopian project has yet to be resolved, though the White House has said Trump’s continued negotiations with the two sides have staved off open conflict.
Before the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize is announced in October, Trump also has a chance to help wrap up two more major conflicts. The president has secured a meeting between himself and Russian President Vladimir Putin to take place in Alaska this week on ending the war in Ukraine.
Trump has backed Israel in its war against Hamas while also brokering talks to free hostages from the terror group’s grasp and supporting the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) with U.S. funds to feed Palestinian civilians in Gaza. While the GHF undermines Hamas’ control of Palestinians in Gaza, Israel has made progress on destroying the terror group and ending the conflict.