Former Trump national security adviser John Bolton downplayed President Donald Trump’s influence in recent international deals.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced he had nominated Trump to the Nobel Prize Committee amid meetings with Trump at the White House last month. Netanyahu was the second foreign dignitary to nominate Trump this year, followed by the Pakistani government.
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Since those nominations, Trump has been involved in negotiations between Armenia and Azerbaijan, Thailand and Cambodia, Rwanda and the Congo, and India and Pakistan. Trump counts six “major wars” prevented since he’s taken office for the second time.
However, Bolton suggested Sunday that Trump shouldn’t take the credit while on ABC News’s This Week.
“I don’t think what [Trump] has done materially changes the situations in any of those circumstances or several others he’s mentioned,” Bolton said.
“I think what Trump has done is make it clear that he wants a Nobel Peace Prize more than anything else," Pres. Trump's former national security adviser John Bolton told @JonKarl when asked about Trump's international record. https://t.co/ai4XPqIlro pic.twitter.com/cHPbJYZ68B
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) August 10, 2025
“Like Pakistan-India, where the Indians — not just the government, the entire country — are outraged he tried to take credit for that. In Thailand-Cambodia, he simply threatened tariffs if they didn’t sign a deal. They signed the deal; nothing has changed,” Bolton added. “The real kicker in Azerbaijan-Armenia was the Russians allowing Azerbaijan to take control of Nagorno-Karabakh in the last year.”
“I think what Trump has done is make it clear that he wants a Nobel Peace Prize more than anything else,” Bolton said. “And the way to his heart, as Pakistani Chief of Staff [Asim] Munir found and Netanyahu found, is offer to nominate him.”
More international leaders are teasing further nominations for Trump. Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Sun Chanthol promised to nominate Trump after a deal was struck with Thailand. Leaders from Gabon, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mauritania, and Senegal also endorsed Trump for the prize.
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Trump is slated to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday, more than three years into Russia’s conflict with Ukraine.
The Norwegian Nobel Institute will announce its prize winner on Dec. 10. In its past, the institute has rewarded four U.S. presidents: Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Jimmy Carter, and Barack Obama.