Trump claims he deserves Nobel Peace Prize

The winner of the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize will be named later this morning. Last year, it went to a Venezuelan opposition leader who then gifted it to US President Donald Trump, and he's keen to win it himself this year.

Last time they gave it to a young lady who's a fabulous person, and she said she didn't deserve it, that I deserved it. And she gave it to me and I said, "Wow, what an honor." I settled eight wars. Another one is coming. I got all the hostages back. I did things that nobody else has ever done. I'm not bragging, I'm just telling you the facts. No president probably has settled any wars. I settled eight wars, and big ones. Big ones. Saved millions and millions of lives. And when Maria gave me that Nobel Prize, she said, "Not only should he get it for this year, but there's never been anybody in the history of the Nobel Prize that deserves it more." I did. I settled eight wars. Uh, and I've stopped maybe the total obliteration of the world because I-- Iran will never have a nuclear weapon.

That's Donald Trump paying tribute to Maria Corina Machado, sort of. Uh, we're joined now by Ed Burke, Assistant Professor of the History of War at UCD. Morning, Ed.

Good morning.

Eight wars. Is he nailed on to win?

[laughs] Absolutely not, especially after the, uh, the last year he's had and, and the war that, uh, he and the Prime Minister of Israel have, uh, started, um, and his long history of trying to, uh, unravel a, a reasonably functioning, uh, nuclear proliferation agreement, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, that was in place with Iran and had lowered, uh, Iranian re-enrichment of uran- uh, of uranium. So he's, uh, far from being, uh, a sort of a, a model Nobel Peace Prize winner. Uh, he's very much a belligerent in a war and a man who, uh, cements conflict, um, uh, aggression, um, and, and indeed is, as you, as we know, the, the war in the, in the Middle East is far from resolved in terms of Iran and indeed is escalating in, in terms of the, uh, conflict now in Yemen and, uh, the Red Sea and this, this, yeah.

He wouldn't be the first US president, the first US president who went to war to win it, though, would he?

No, cer-certainly not. Um, but, but, m- you know, generally speaking, we have had, uh, you know, since the Second World War, um, US presidents have at least tried to, um, couch their interventions in some forms of international law or the law of armed conflict. Um, even, even with regards to support, for example, of the, of South Vietnam, you know, there was an, an attempt to justify that as military assistance. Obviously, President Clinton, you know, intervened on a number of occasions, uh, Kosovo, uh, Bosnia. Um, and, and, and th-these were again seen as, as actions that were taken, um, under international law. Trump really has kind of completely dispensed with any pretense that he's acting with the United Nations Security Council, uh, mandates, and he cares nothing for international law. So the idea that, that this is a man who is bringing stability and, and peace to the world is un- is unfortunately risible.

Several winners of the prize have campaigned for the abolition of the death penalty in the past, and news now that