The Devil Wears MAGA: Trump’s Nobel prize bid amid Israel-Iran conflict

Did you know Donald Trump has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize multiple times — yet once lost to Maria Ressa, the first Filipino laureate who won for defending press freedom?

Did you also know he’s still bitter, especially because Barack Obama won it first in 2009, a decision Trump never forgave? 

“He’s obsessed with the fact that Mr. Obama got it and he didn’t,” a former White House official told NBC. In fact, he once called for Obama’s prize to be “rescinded.” 

So when Rep. Buddy Carter of Georgia nominated Trump again in June 2025, it felt like satire. Just three days earlier, Trump had ordered “Operation Midnight Hammer,” a high-casualty bombing campaign that dropped 30,000-pound bunker busters on Iran’s nuclear sites in Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan, during a 12-day war between Iran and Israel that had already left dozens dead and entire cities rattled.

Israeli airstrikes had already killed top Iranian generals, Iran had bombed Tel Aviv and Haifa, and Trump walked in with bombs of his own, declaring “spectacular success.” 

However, the United Nations condemned the operation as a “dangerous escalation” that risked further destabilizing the Middle East and undermined diplomatic efforts. 

And in a twist soaked in hypocrisy, it was the same Trump who once sneered that Obama would start a war with Iran just to get re-elected. In 2011, he tweeted: “In order to get elected, @BarackObama will start a war with Iran.” 

Now, it’s 2025 and Trump, drowning in indictments and losing ground politically, did exactly what he accused Obama of. But instead of admitting that, he spun the carnage into a campaign ad and got his loyalists to nominate him for a Nobel peace prize. Critics didn’t see a peacemaker. They saw a pyromaniac lobbing missiles and calling it restraint.  A man so pathologically obsessed with Obama’s Nobel win that he bombed his way into a fantasy, then posted about it in all caps.

Trump’s obsession with the Nobel Peace Prize runs counter to its original purpose. Alfred Nobel — the Swedish inventor and scientist who established the prize in 1895 — intended it as a tribute to those whose actions serve “the greatest benefit to humankind,” particularly in advancing peace and international cooperation. But Trump’s fixation has never been about genuine peace advocacy; it has been driven by personal validation and political payback.

Ever since Obama received the award in 2009 for promoting global diplomacy (an honor even Obama questioned), Trump has mocked it as a “joke” at rallies and, according to former aides, mentioned the Nobel Committee “more often than the Fed,” obsessing over why he hadn’t received the same validation.

Since 2018, Trump has been nominated multiple times for everything from the Abraham Accords to a symbolic handshake between Serbia and Kosovo. The nominations came from conservative Norwegian MPs, Australian politicians, and loyal Republican allies in Congress. None advanced past the early rounds. But Trump didn’t care. Each failed bid became fuel for his anti-globalist narrative: that he was a maverick hero, denied recognition by a liberal international elite desperate to protect Obama’s legacy.

That narrative is now being retooled, as in June 2025 — fresh off ordering bunker-buster strikes on Iran during the Israel-Iran conflict — Trump was once again nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Carter, who cited his “extraordinary and historic role” in brokering what he called an end to the war.

In his formal letter to the committee, Carter praised Trump for averting what he described as a potential “region-destabilizing war” and for taking “bold, decisive actions” to stop Iran which he called “the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism” from obtaining nuclear weapons. 

The logic is familiar: bombs dropped in the name of peace, destruction framed as diplomacy. In this narrative, the man who pulled the trigger is repackaged as the one who defused the bomb.

Carter claimed that Trump’s influence was “instrumental” in forging a ceasefire agreement that halted military hostilities and “preserved thousands, if not millions, of lives.” He also framed Trump’s leadership as exemplifying the Nobel ideals of “the pursuit of peace, the prevention of war, and the advancement of international harmony.”

According to Carter, Trump’s decision to intervene militarily and then announce a ceasefire was not only a diplomatic feat but a “rare glimpse of hope” in a historically volatile region.

In response, Trump took to Truth Social and claimed he had “totally destroyed” a decades-old threat and called the US strikes on Iran “one of the most successful military strikes in history.”

But even as he chased that glory, Trump was losing credibility elsewhere. A Nobel nomination submitted in late 2024 by Ukrainian MP Oleksandr Merezhko was formally withdrawn in June 2025. 

Merezhko, once optimistic that Trump could help broker peace with Russia, told Newsweek he had “lost any sort of faith and belief” in Trump’s ability to lead diplomacy, citing the president’s soft stance on sanctions and virtual silence after missile strikes on Kyiv. “He has chosen the path of appeasement,” Merezhko said, calling Trump’s foreign policy “a gift to Putin.”

Meanwhile, Pakistan’s government claimed it would nominate Trump for the 2026 prize for supposedly brokering calm during clashes with India — an intervention India publicly downplayed. And with U.S. attention shifting toward the Middle East, Ukrainian officials have expressed concern that Trump’s foreign policy is not only performative but actively harmful — diverting military aid, emboldening Russia, and fueling oil markets that prop up the Kremlin’s war machine.

The so-called “12-Day War” began on June 13, 2025, when Israel launched Operation Rising Lion, a surprise wave of airstrikes targeting Iran’s military and suspected nuclear facilities. The attack killed several senior Iranian generals and nuclear scientists. Within hours, Iran retaliated, firing hundreds of drones and ballistic missiles at Israeli cities like Tel Aviv and Haifa, overwhelming parts of Israel’s vaunted Iron Dome defense system and sending civilians scrambling for shelter.

For a few tense days, the United States watched from the sidelines. But as the conflict escalated and with fears growing that Iran was inching closer to building a nuclear weapon, Trump abandoned diplomacy. On June 21, he ordered “Operation Midnight Hammer,” a massive US bombing campaign aimed at Iran’s most fortified nuclear sites. The decision reflected Trump’s trademark approach to foreign policy: prioritize spectacle over strategy, act first, and leave the long-term consequences to chance.

B-2 stealth bombers led the charge, dropping GBU-57 bunker-buster bombs — 30,000-pound munitions designed to destroy deeply buried targets — on Iran’s nuclear facilities in Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan.

Simultaneously, US Navy submarines positioned in the Arabian Sea launched over 30 Tomahawk cruise missiles, piercing the night sky and targeting infrastructure. 

The strikes lit up Iranian skies and sent shockwaves across the region, fueling fears of wider escalation and destabilization in an already volatile Middle East.

From the White House Situation Room, Trump stood beside Secretary of State Marco Rubio and declared it “an operation the likes of which the world has not seen in decades.” He added: “Either there will be peace, or there will be tragedy for Iran far greater than what we’ve witnessed over the past eight days.”

Iran didn’t back down. Hours later, it fired a barrage of missiles at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, the largest US military installation in the region. Regional air traffic was thrown into chaos. Civilian planes were rerouted. Oil tankers began fleeing the Strait of Hormuz, a vital global shipping lane, as reports surfaced that Iran was jamming vessel tracking systems. Energy companies, including QatarEnergy, scrambled to reroute cargo and avoid possible blockades.

While Trump made noise, it was the UN, EU, Turkey, and Qatar that were quietly doing the diplomatic heavy lifting behind the scenes. Then came the surprise twist. 

On June 23, Trump announced on Truth Social that Israel and Iran had agreed to a “Complete and Total CEASEFIRE.” He claimed he brokered it through “one of the most beautiful phone calls” he’d ever made with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

But peace didn’t last long. Just hours after the announcement, Israel struck a radar facility outside Tehran, claiming Iran had violated the ceasefire by firing two missiles. Iran denied it. Trump, furious, posted: “They don’t know what the f*** they’re doing.”

Despite Trump’s bold claims that he had “completely erased a decades-old threat,” U.S. intelligence assessments leaked days later told a different story. Iran’s nuclear facilities had been damaged but not destroyed. Many centrifuge halls remained intact, and Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile had already been moved before the bombs fell. The strikes, analysts said, set Iran’s program back by only a few months.

While Trump declared himself the broker of peace, there’s little evidence that he personally negotiated the ceasefire terms. The UN, Turkey, Qatar, and EU diplomatic teams were all involved in facilitating the pause. The ceasefire came through pressure — not partnership — with Iran. No treaty was signed or framework was laid for long-term peace.

For all his claims of “spectacular success,” the ceasefire stood more as a product of multilateral diplomacy than any singular phone call — exposing just how hollow Trump’s declarations had been all along.

Critics say Trump’s own decisions helped set the stage for the war. His 2018 withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal dismantled years of international monitoring and gave Iran an excuse to resume enrichment. His public threats during the conflict — including vows to destroy “many targets within minutes” — further escalated tensions.

Meanwhile, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported no off-site radiation after the bombings, but they also admitted they had no way of assessing the true damage underground. Iran still holds an estimated 400 kg of highly enriched uranium. And just days after the ceasefire, Iran’s parliament advanced a bill to suspend cooperation with the IAEA entirely.

International backlash was swift. Iran’s envoy to the UN condemned the US bombing as a “flagrant violation of international law.” European leaders criticized the US for prioritizing military action over diplomacy. Even within the US intelligence community, skepticism grew. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard testified to Congress that there was still “no evidence” Iran was building a nuclear bomb — contradicting Trump’s justification for the strikes.

The ceasefire may be holding, but beneath the calm lies a region fraying at the seams. According to early U.S. intelligence, the June 2025 airstrikes — trumpeted by Trump as having “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear program — failed to destroy its core infrastructure. 

Underground centrifuges at Fordow and Natanz remain largely intact, and Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium was reportedly relocated prior to the bombing. Damage was largely limited to above-ground facilities and power systems, setting Iran’s nuclear timeline back by mere months, not decades.

Despite this, both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Trump have spun the operation as a geopolitical victory. Netanyahu declared the strikes a “decisive blow” and credited Trump for standing “like no one else” with Israel. 

With his poll numbers rebounding, Netanyahu is considering snap elections, leveraging the perception that he personally ended the decades-old Iranian nuclear threat. But Israeli military analysts and international observers warn that Tehran’s hardliners may now accelerate their program in secret — out of public view and beyond the IAEA’s reach. Iran’s Parliament has already advanced a bill to cut ties with the IAEA altogether.

The illusion of stability hasn’t translated into actual diplomacy. No treaty was signed. No framework has been laid for a new nuclear accord. Iranian officials remain deeply skeptical, having seen the US bomb sites during what were supposed to be indirect negotiations. European diplomats have proposed restarting talks, but Israel has flatly rejected any deal that allows Iran to retain enrichment capabilities. Even inside the White House, intelligence officials privately admit there’s no clear strategy forward.

Meanwhile, regional tensions are bleeding into global markets. Oil tankers are rerouting from the Strait of Hormuz amid fears of renewed hostilities. Prices have surged, and the European Union has quietly paused plans to impose a new oil price cap on Russia, afraid of further shocks. This, ironically, plays into Putin’s hands, as high oil prices cushion Moscow's war chest.

And Gaza still burns. While Israel wraps its high-profile assault on Iran in headlines of “success,” the bloodbath in Gaza continues with brutal consistency — nearly 56,000 Palestinians have been killed since 2023, many while seeking food or shelter. This is not a diversion by accident, but by design. As Iran becomes the center of global attention, Israel bleeds Gaza quietly, banking on distraction to dull outrage.

Netanyahu faces war crimes accusations at the International Criminal Court and mounting global condemnation. Within the US, even Trump’s far-right allies have grown increasingly vocal against Netanyahu, accusing Israel of violating the very ceasefire Trump claimed credit for brokering.

Trump, eager to shape himself as the “peacemaker-in-chief,” now finds himself at odds with the very partner he propped up. He publicly scolded Netanyahu for launching a symbolic retaliatory strike after the ceasefire and privately fumed, according to aides, that Netanyahu had “lied” to him. Even Steve Bannon — Trump’s former strategist — lashed out, calling Israel a “protectorate” and Netanyahu a “bald-faced liar.”

So while Trump and Netanyahu declare peace, the facts on the ground suggest only a pause, one riddled with contradictions and unresolved crises. Nuclear tensions simmer beneath the rubble. Regional hostilities persist. And Gaza remains a wound the world refuses to stitch. What Trump calls a breakthrough, regional experts are calling a brief intermission in a war far from over.