President Donald Trump rushed to unveil an Israel-Hamas peace deal with only two days left before the Nobel Peace Prize announcement.
Trump touted in a Truth Social post on Wednesday that Israel and Hamas have signed off on the first phase of “our peace plan,” which he described as a “historic and unprecedented event.”
“This means that ALL of the Hostages will be released very soon, and Israel will withdraw their Troops to an agreed upon line as the first steps toward a Strong, Durable, and Everlasting Peace,” he wrote. “BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS!”
Trump talked up the pact in an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity.
“The world has come together around this deal. And that’s something I would say that without that, wouldn’t happen,” he said. “So many countries that you wouldn’t have thought of have wired their best wishes and their commitment to do whatever is necessary.”
Sought to explain how he got around Middle Eastern leaders’ decades-long resistance to agreeing to a peace deal, Trump said simply, “Well, I develop relationships with people, and sometimes those relationships lead to great things.”
Trump said he spoke to Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday night, quoting the Israeli prime minister as saying, “I can’t believe it. Everybody’s liking me now.”
“I said that, more importantly, they’re loving Israel again,” Trump said.
The president also told Axios that he will likely fly to Israel in the coming days to address its parliament.
The Truth Social announcement was published shortly after a hastily handwritten note from Secretary of State Marco Rubio was photographed during a roundtable event at the White House.
Attorney General Pam Bondi was speaking when Rubio handed Trump a note. Rubio was then seen whispering in Trump’s ear after the president gestured for him to come closer.
The note, captured by an AP photographer, reads, “We need you to approve a Truth Social post soon so you can announce deal first.”
Trump wasted no time telling the media what just happened.
“OK, I was just given a note by the Secretary of State saying, ‘We’re very close to a deal in the Middle East’ and they’re gonna need me pretty quickly,” he said.
The president’s urgency likely stems from the fact that the Nobel Peace Prize is set to be announced on Friday.
Trump’s lofty Nobel laureate ambitions are no secret. The president has publicly stated—over and over again—that he should be awarded the prestigious honor for supposedly putting an end to multiple long-running conflicts across the globe, some of which even he struggles to recall.
But the publicity is likely to hurt his ambitions, according to Asle Toje, deputy leader of the Norwegian Nobel Committee.
“Some candidates push for it really hard and we do not like it,” Toje told Reuters. “We are used to work in a locked room without being attempted to be influenced. It is hard enough as it is to reach an agreement among ourselves, without having more people trying to influence us.”
The Financial Times also reported that “few” in Oslo believe Trump has a real chance at the Nobel Peace Prize, thanks in part to the divisive policies he’s enacted in the U.S. The five-person committee that calls the shots is composed of a human rights advocate, a foreign policy expert, and three former ministers.
It remains to be seen whether the Israel-Hamas peace deal makes any real impact on Trump’s Nobel campaign. A European diplomat earlier told the FT that “it has been hard to take some of his proclamations seriously—but this is different. Gaza would be a big deal.”
In July, Netanyahu joined a long list of foreign leaders who have sought to placate the American leader by nominating Trump for the Peace Prize, including the governments of Pakistan, Rwanda, and Gabon.
Perhaps the biggest obstacle in Trump’s way is the fact that the Nobel Prizes are meant to honor achievements from the preceding year.
Alfred Nobel, the Swedish businessman and entrepreneur after whom the esteemed awards are named, stated in his will that the honors should be given to “those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind.”
