President Donald Trump’s long-running obsession with getting his ego stroked curdled into open resentment Thursday morning, when he lashed out at a U.S. ally for supposedly “screwing” him out of the award, only for a basic fact to immediately shatter the excuse he was using to save face.
The moment unfolded during Trump’s remarks at the inaugural meeting of his newly created Board of Peace, an event meant to project global statesmanship but instead devolved into a public ego check.
As Trump scanned a note announcing that Norway had agreed to host a future gathering, he briefly convinced himself it was confirmation that he had finally won the Nobel Peace Prize—then unraveled when he realized it wasn’t.
“I’m excited to announce that Norway has agreed to host an event bringing together the Board of Peace,” Trump began, before realizing it wasn’t what he thought it was.
“Oh, I thought when I saw this note that ‘I’m excited to announce that Norway,’ I thought they were going to say they’re giving me the Nobel Prize,” a bitter Trump groused before changing his voice and mocking his scripted speech.
What followed made clear just how thin the ego-saving story was. Trump blamed Norway for denying him the honor, repeatedly insisting he had been “screwed,” even though Norway’s government has no role whatsoever in awarding Nobel Prizes.
The Nobel Peace Prize is decided by the Norwegian Nobel Committee, not the Norwegian state, rendering Trump’s grievance not just petty but factually incoherent.
Still, Trump attempted to paper over the disappointment by insisting, unconvincingly, that the prize never mattered to him in the first place.
“I don’t care about the Nobel Prize,” he claimed. “I care about saving lives.”
Minutes later, he contradicted himself again, this time by gushing over a consolation prize invented just for him.
Social media users quickly clapped back at Trump’s duplicity.
“They’re talking about bringing people together for peace and he’s half disappointed it’s not a prize ceremony for him. That’s such a weird instinct,” X user Nikos Unity mused.
X user Sherry B reposted the clip of Trump griping about the prize captioned, “Things only a narcissist thinks:.”
But this X user probably summed it up best.
“Worlds worst loser splits his time between arguing that he didn’t really lose things in the past and collecting silly shiny trophies created just for him. Parents please teach your kids that it’s okay to lose and even to get things wrong sometimes and then admit you got it wrong.”
Trump went on to gush in his speech over FIFA President Gianni Infantino, who created and handed him the “inaugural 2025 FIFA Peace Prize” in December.
“I want to thank Gianni and FIFA for all of the wonderful things they did and are doing. They gave me their first Peace Prize. They gave a Peace Prize, and I think they saw that I got screwed by Norway, and they said, ‘Let’s give him a Peace prize.’ I mean, very good,” a resentful Trump blasted.
The five-member Norwegian Nobel Committee decides who wins the prize. And the meeting Norway was referring to in the letter to Trump is the Ad-Hoc Liaison Committee (AHCL) spring gathering to help raise aid for Palestinians in war-torn Gaza.
It’s a group Norwegians have led since the mid-1990s, when it was created after the 1993-1995 Oslo Accords between Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization, which sought to broker a peace through a two-state solution, according to Reuters.
Norway has also rejected joining Trump’s Board of Peace, or ponying up the $1 billion entrance fee, but 20 have signed on. Trump announced Thursday the U.S. is contributing $10 billion and that nine countries have pledged $7 billion, including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, according to MS Now.
