Donald Trump: 2016 Nobel Peace Prize Nominee (This Is Not A Joke)
The outspoken Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize alongside NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden and Pope Francis.
An anonymous politician reportedly nominated Trump, a few days before the deadline on February 1.
Kristian Berg Harpviken, director the Peace Research Institute of Oslo, which publishes a yearly forecast of the possible winners, said he cannot divulge the name of the nominator but shared the content of the nomination letter.
“I have committed not to reveal the identity of the nominator, but what I can say is that the nominator has shared a copy of his nomination letter directly with me, that the nominator has a position which gives him the right to nominate, and that I consider it valid,” Harpviken stated.
Donald Trump has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize https://t.co/xXg7tfuzV7 pic.twitter.com/5uFtYvSKsk
— The Independent (@Independent) February 3, 2016
The letter says the business mogul deserves to win the prize because of “his vigorous peace through strength ideology, used as a threat weapon of deterrence against radical Islam, ISIS, nuclear Iran and Communist China.”
Trump is determined to “beat the s–t out of ISIS” should he win the presidential race, even suggesting to shut down mosques in the U.S. to prevent extremists from furthering their terroristic agenda.
Harpviken said Trump winning the Nobel Peace Prize is “entirely unlikely” because the reason he was nominated focuses much on “the necessity of confrontation rather than anything else” and he believes it is not enough to convince the members of the panel.
During his campaign, the outspoken billionaire drew controversy for his seemingly insensitive remarks toward Latinos, illegal immigrants, and Muslims. He also got himself into a Twitter war with Megyn Kelly and mocked a journalist with a disability.
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Harpviken believes the move to nominate Donald Trump may be a publicity stunt: “The person who suggested it may genuinely mean it, but the person who suggested it may also realize that the very fact that Trump’s nomination gets confirmed has considerable interest in its own right, and that all publicity is good publicity.”
Trump is not on Harpviken’s shortlist that also includes Snowden, the tandem who played a vital part in the Iran nuclear negotiation-US energy secretary Ernest Moniz, and the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran Ali Akbar Salehi, and the duo of Timoleón Jiménez, head of Colombia’s FARC guerrillas, and Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos, for their peace talk efforts to end the Colombian civil war.
Could 2016 be Edward Snowden’s year for a Nobel Peace Prize? https://t.co/LNjBNKtonU pic.twitter.com/ZvldXDgCto
— Reuters UK (@ReutersUK) February 1, 2016
The Nobel Committee, which does not reveal their decision-making process, invites thousands of people each year to nominate deserving Nobel Peace Prize recipients and panel members can also nominate during their first judging meeting on February 29. Some of the nominees in the past years include Bono, German dictator Adolf Hitler, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin.
This year’s list of nominees includes Nadia Murad, a Yazidi who escaped from ISIS sexual slavery and now helps women who survived the same harrowing experience. Murad spoke before the U.N. Secretary Council in December and recounted how she and thousands of Yazidi women were abducted and raped.
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“We want a peace prize that can awaken the world to the fight against sexual violence as a weapon of war,” Norwegian lawmaker Audun Lysbakken, leader of Norway’s Socialist Left Party, said in nominating Murad.
Congolese surgeon, Denis Mukwege, who gives medical services to victims of sexual violence his war-torn country has also been nominated. The Afghani women’s cycling team has been nominated by 118 Italian lawmakers this year for promoting “the most democratic means of transportation for all mankind.”
The outcome of the Nobel Peace Prize nomination of Donald Trump, much like his U.S. presidential candidacy, remains to be seen. The 2016 Nobel peace Prize winner will be announced in early October.
[Image by Joe Raedle, Getty Images]
