Donald Trump Bragged That Shinzo Abe Nominated Him For Nobel Prize, New Report Claims Trump Asked Him To Do It
Donald Trump bragged this week that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize for Trump’s work in pushing denuclearization talks with North Korea.
But a new report claims that Shinzo made the nomination at the request of Trump himself.
As the Japan Times reported, Abe only submitted Trump’s name for nomination for the award last fall after the United States government had requested him to do so. Trump told reporters this week that the Japanese leader wrote a five-page nomination letter and that Abe gave him “the most beautiful copy” of the letter. The Japanese Foreign Ministry had already declined to comment about Trump’s remarks, the Japan Times reported, which raised some eyebrows given how openly Trump had bragged about the nomination.
“Prime Minister Abe of Japan gave me the most beautiful copy of a letter that he sent to the people who give out a thing called the Nobel Prize,” Trump said in remarks to reporters this week. “He said, ‘I have nominated you, respectfully on behalf of Japan, I am asking them to give you the Nobel Peace Prize.'”
Donald Trump has also bragged frequently about his work with North Korea, saying that his work averted what would have been a nuclear war had Hillary Clinton won the presidential election in 2016. But he has been criticized for cozying up to North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un and for failing to secure any real concessions, as experts say North Korea has not taken any steps toward the denuclearization that Trump said has already taken place.
Trump has now announced a second summit with the North Korean leader after a face-to-face meeting last year, and Politico noted that it could be critical for his political capital. The president continues to tout easing tensions with North Korea as one of his biggest foreign policy accomplishments.
So apparently the Trump administration unofficially asked Abe to submit the documents necessary to nominate the US president for the Nobel Peace Prize, per Asahi.???????????????…??????????????????? https://t.co/e4JAVIeVQL
— Jesse Johnson (@jljzen) February 16, 2019
“If he has another summit with Kim Jong Un that doesn’t really lead to something more serious than what we’ve seen so far, having had the debacle of the negotiation with the Congress, it starts to chip away at his mantra that ‘I alone can fix it’ and ‘I’m the greatest deal-maker of all time,'” Eric Edelman, a former top Pentagon official under President George W. Bush, told the outlet.
Donald Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009. Trump frequently criticized Obama, saying he did not deserve the award.
