Looks like Donald Trump's dream for a Nobel Peace Prize is squashed, at least for now. Multiple media reports, and top analysts, have said the US president would not be getting the prestigious award.
Trump's Nobel obsession doesn't seem to end. His push for the prize, whose 2025 winner will be named on Friday, is fueled by a potent mix of a desire for prestige and a long rivalry with former president Barack Obama.
Sometimes Trump, who is often better known for his divisive rhetoric, anti-migration drive and embrace of foreign authoritarians, has appeared to acknowledge that he is an unlikely candidate.
"Will you get the Nobel Prize? Absolutely not. They'll give it to some guy that didn't do a damn thing," Trump said during a speech to hundreds of the US military's top officers in September.
But in the same breath Trump revealed his true feelings.
"It'd be a big insult to our country, I will tell you that. I don't want it, I want the country to get it. It should get it because there's never been anything like it," he said at the same gathering.
Numerous experts consider Trump's "peacemaker" claims to be exaggerated and express concerns over the consequences of his "America First" policies.
Trump has withdrawn the US from international organisations and multilateral treaties, launched trade wars against allies and enemies alike, threatened to take Greenland from Denmark by force, ordered the National Guard into US cities and attacked universities' academic freedoms as well as freedom of expression.
"We take the complete picture into account," explained Jorgen Watne Frydnes, chair of the five-member committee awarding the peace prize.
Possible Nobel nominees
News agency AFP has reported that the following may be in contention for the Nobel Peace Prize, which will be announced on October 10. However, the names can not be confirmed. The list of nominees is not made public for 50 years, as per the award's tradition.
Sudan's Emergency Response Rooms, Yulia Navalnaya, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the International Court of Justice, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and Reporters Without Borders are said to be frontrunners.
But the Norwegian Nobel Committee is notorious for going against predictions. Like last year, Japan's atomic bomb survivors' group Nihon Hidankyo was given the award.
