The Swedish chemist, engineer and inventor Alfred Nobel liked a uniter, not a divider, even though his own experiments were aimed at blowing things up.

Nobel, who died in 1896, invented dynamite.

Still, according to his will, Nobel wanted the peace prize award that carries his name to go each year to the group or person "who has done the most or best to advance fellowship among nations."

Does that sound like President Donald Trump, who openly covets the award? This year's recipient will be announced on Oct. 10 in Oslo, Norway.

Almost certainly not, say experts in peace studies and historians of the prize like Øivind Stenersen, who wrote a 2014 book on the Nobel Peace Prize when he was a research fellow at Oslo's Norwegian Nobel Institute, which helps review nominations and candidates.

"Multilateral diplomacy, strengthening democracy, human rights, climate policies, a better organized world − these are the things the Nobel committee looks for, based on Alfred Nobel's ideals," Stenersen said. "I think Trump's candidacy looks very weak."

Nina Graeger is the director of the Peace Research Institute Oslo. She said Trump deserves some credit for attempting to make headway in halting wars in Gaza and Ukraine. The first phase of a ceasefire and hostage release deal between Israel and Hamas, brokered by Trump, was agreed on Oct. 8. But, Graeger said, Trump has simultaneously taken actions that sit awkwardly alongside and divert peace promotion.

"He has withdrawn the U.S. from the World Health Organization and the Paris Accord on climate. He has initiated a trade war on friends and allies. He's said he wants to take Greenland from Denmark, a NATO ally. He has also authorized attacks on vessels off the coast of Venezuela that could ultimately amount to being a breach of international law."

Still, when a committee of five former Norwegian lawmakers hands out the award for the 106th time since 1901 − some years it's not awarded − one person who appears to have absolutely no doubts about who deserves to win the accolade is Trump himself. And if he wins, he would follow four other American presidents who have won it for various contributions to peace, both during and after their presidencies.

"They will never give me a Nobel Peace Prize. It’s too bad. I deserve it, but they will never give it to me," Trump said during a meeting in February at the White House with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu, who faces allegations from the International Criminal Court in The Hague in relation to Gaza, later nominated Trump for the prize.

This nomination was primarily for Trump's role in negotiating the 2020 Abraham Accords during his first term, which normalized diplomatic relations between Israel and several Arab nations, rather than for his ongoing efforts to forge peace between Israel and the Palestinians in Gaza.

Who deserves Alfred Nobel's prize for peace?

Officially, nominations are meant to be secret. However, nominators − worldwide members of research academies, university professors, scientists, previous Nobel Prize laureates and members of parliamentary assemblies and others − can choose to reveal their submissions.

Over the years, Trump has been nominated for the prize multiple times. For pushing to curtail North Korea's nuclear program. For pursuing a policy doctrine that eschews "endless wars." For vowing to follow through on a campaign promise to end Russia's war in Ukraine.

Trump has also publicly stated at least a half-dozen times that he deserves to win the prize. He and his allies have recently cited his various peace efforts linked to long-simmering conflicts between Israel and Iran; the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda; Cambodia and Thailand; India and Pakistan; Serbia and Kosovo; Egypt and Ethiopia; and Azerbaijan and Armenia.

But Kjetil Tronvoll, a peace and conflict studies researcher at Oslo New University College, said this lobbying effort is likely to be counterproductive because it fundamentally contradicts and "provokes" core assumptions in Norway about how laureates should behave.

"It doesn't matter if Trump stands on his head or if he solves all the conflicts in the world. He may even deserve the prize. He'll never get it because it's not just about being a peacemaker or a human rights defender, it's also about being a dignified representative of the prize in the view of the committee and the Norwegian public."

Tronvoll said Norwegians don't view Trump in those terms. There's rarely been a public figure who has, so explicitly, made the case for his own peacemaking abilities.

He added that many surprising and perhaps retrospectively undeserving candidates have won the award despite having questionable, authoritarian and even brutal track records.

Surprising peace prize winners include Henry Kissinger

Former President Barack Obama received it in 2009, less than eight months into his presidency, when he had achieved little in terms of concrete peace-related policymaking. The late diplomat Henry Kissinger, whose geopolitical accomplishments were later marred by accusations from some historians and thinkers that he perpetrated war crimes and human rights abuses, won it at the height of the Vietnam War. Myanmar democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi won the prize in 1991 while she was under house arrest. Her reputation has since been stained by her apparent support for Myanmar's government military operations that targeted the Rohingya ethnic group, a persecuted Muslim minority, with mass killings and assaults.

Less than a year after Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali became a Nobel laureate in 2019, a brutal conflict erupted in Tigray, a northern regional state in Ethiopia, between Ethiopian federal military forces and the Tigray People's Liberation Front, a rebel group.

Americans also appear to think Trump isn't ready to be the fifth American president to receive the award. Theodore Roosevelt won it in 1906, the first American to do so, for helping to end the Russo-Japanese War. Woodrow Wilson won it in 1919 for his central role in peace negotiations that ended World War I. Jimmy Carter was honored in 2002 for his decades of post-presidential work advancing human rights and promoting democracy. Obama's prize in 2009 cited his vision of a world free from nuclear weapons.

A Washington Post-Ipsos poll in late September found that 76% of Americans believed Trump didn't deserve to win the prize, compared with 22% who said he did. The same poll found that 54% of Americans thought Obama wasn't deserving of the award he received in 2009.

Each year, the director of the Peace Research Institute Oslo produces a shortlist of people viewed as worthy and potential peace prize winners. Trump didn't make the 2025 cut. This year, Graeger identified five organizations she believes are worthy of the prize:

The Committee to Protect Journalists, a U.S.-based media watchdog that compiles data on journalists who have been attacked or killed and advocates for journalists in crisis.

Sudan's Emergency Response Rooms, which provide communal kitchens, support evacuations and offer medical care and other services in a country where an armed conflict that erupted in 2023 has displaced nearly 13 million people.

The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, which observes elections for their fairness and integrity in 57 countries.

The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, which encourages more women to get involved in global peacebuilding efforts.

The International Court of Justice and International Criminal Court, which seek to prosecute crimes such as genocide and war crimes.

Tariffs and Nobels, a Norway call

Trump is not out of the running altogether. Nobel experts may say he has virtually no chance of winning. However, an odds tracker that collates data from about two dozen bookmakers places him second behind the favorite, Sudan's Emergency Response Rooms.

"I wish him success," said Oleksandra Matviichuk, who was awarded the prize in 2022 for her work leading the Center for Civil Liberties, which promotes human rights and democracy in Ukraine.

"Being the president of the United States means you have to achieve a sustainable and just peace," she added, referencing the difficulty Trump has encountered getting Russian President Vladimir Putin to commit to diplomacy and ending Moscow's war in Ukraine.

Trump's bid to secure the prize may be wending its way through other channels, according to Norwegian newspaper Dagens Næringsliv. The paper reported in August that Trump called Norway’s Finance Minister Jens Stoltenberg in July to discuss trade tariffs as well as his bid to win the peace prize.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment about this outreach effort.

But in a statement to USA TODAY, Stoltenberg confirmed the call took place. The former NATO chief said that he would "not go into further detail about the content of the conversation."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump says he deserves a Nobel peace prize. Does he?

Reporting by Kim Hjelmgaard, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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