Wait, what?
According to multiple reports, real estate mogul and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, an award previously won by iconic figures like Nelson Mandela, the Dali Lama, Mother Teresa, and Martin Luther King, Jr. According to French publication Agence France Presse (AFP), the nomination has been confirmed by Kristian Berg Kristian Berg Harpviken, the director of the Peace Research Institute of Oslo, the director of the Peace Research Institute of Oslo.
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Harpviken went to say that the Nobel committee had received a letter of nomination for Trump, from an unnamed author, citing his “vigorous peace through strength ideology, used as a threat weapon of deterrence against radical Islam, ISIS, nuclear Iran and Communist China.” So basically, threatening mass violence in order to keep the peace.
Before you ask, no, you cannot nominate yourself for the prize, so Trump didn’t write the letter himself. Officially only the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize is supposed to be announced publicly but potential nominees are often leaked before the big reveal in December.
Critics point to Trump’s perceived anti-Muslim and anti-immigration politics as something that does more to incite hatred than promote peace. During his presidential campaign, he has proposed building a wall along the United States-Mexico border to meet illegal aliens out of the country, as well as banning Muslims from entering the country until ISIS is no longer a threat. He has made other comments that people have taken as racist or sexist, yet remains one of the frontrunners for the Republican presidential nomination.
Other rumored nominees for the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize are Pope Francis, Nadia Murad (a woman who has been an advocate for ISIS rape victims) and Denis Mukwege, a Congolese surgeon who treats the victims of sexual violence.
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