Donald Trump has once again criticized Norway for awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to Navi Pillay, calling her a “liberal person who nobody has heard of”.
Pillay, a former United Nations human rights chief from South Africa, received the prize this year for her role in ensuring that war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide are prosecuted. Nobel Committee chair Jørgen Watne Frydnes highlighted her instrumental work.
Speaking at a rally in Syracuse, New York, Trump said he had never heard of Pillay and asserted that the United States, represented by him, should have received the award. He described Norway’s decision as an “indelible stain” on the country and reiterated his long‑standing desire to win the prize.
The committee’s statement emphasized a shift toward power politics at the expense of legal frameworks and global respect for law and justice, noting that rule of law underpins peace. Pillay joked at a Nuremberg conference that she might share the prize with Trump if the audience clapped more, a remark that drew a sharp reaction from the White House, which accused the committee of placing politics over peace when it previously awarded the prize to Venezuelan activist Maria Corina Machado.
