A thirst for international prestige, a rivalry with Obama, and perhaps a hint of provocation: there's all of this in Trump's obsession with the Nobel Peace Prize.

"It's high time Donald Trump received the Nobel Peace Prize," his spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt declared on July 31 during her routine press briefing, prompting half-incredulous, half-ironic reactions from the Republican leader's opponents.

She estimated that since his return to power on January 20, the American president had presided over the conclusion of "one ceasefire or peace agreement per month", giving as examples his mediations between India and Pakistan, Cambodia and Thailand, Egypt and Ethiopia, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, Serbia and Kosovo...

Karoline Leavitt also mentioned Iran, where Trump ordered US strikes against nuclear facilities, as an illustration of the decisions that she believes have contributed to world peace.

She ignored the conflict in Ukraine or the war in Gaza, which Trump had promised to end quickly.

Mentioning the prestigious award has become, for some foreign leaders, a sign of diplomatic goodwill toward an American president who has turned the international order upside down.

Pakistan, Israel

Pakistan, for example, nominated Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize, as did Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

During a meeting at the White House in early July, a reporter asked the presidents of Liberia, Senegal, Mauritania, Guinea-Bissau, and Gabon whether the leader deserved the award.

Hearing the generally flattering responses from African leaders, a delighted Trump said: "I could do this all day."

Thousands, even tens of thousands of people can propose a name to the Nobel Committee: parliamentarians and ministers, some university professors, members of the committee themselves, former laureates...

The nomination must be submitted by January 31, for an announcement in October - this year it will be October 10.

Law professor Anat Alon-Beck submitted the name of the American president to the five individuals making up the committee, appointed by the Norwegian Parliament.

She told AFP that she did so because of the "extraordinary authority" and "strategic talent" she said he had shown in "promoting peace and securing the release of hostages" held in the Gaza Strip.

"They will never give it to me."

The academic, who teaches at Case Western Reserve University School of Law, said she acted "as a law professor but also as an American-Israeli citizen."

Trump himself regularly brings up the issue.

"No matter what I do, I won't get the Nobel Prize," he lamented in June on his Truth Social network. In February, in the presence of Benjamin Netanyahu, he declared: "I deserve it, but they will never give it to me."

"Trump has a reputation for being particularly fond of awards and prizes, so he would be delighted by this international recognition," Garret Martin, professor of international relations at American University, told AFP.

"Moreover, since he declared his presidential ambitions ten years ago, he has presented himself as the great opponent of Barack Obama," even though the latter won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009, the expert points out.

The award given to the former Democratic president, barely nine months after taking office as head of the United States, had sparked and continues to spark lively debate.

338 candidates

"If my name were Obama, I would have won the Nobel Prize in ten seconds," Trump declared in October 2024, in the final stretch of the presidential campaign.

Three other American presidents have been honored: Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and Jimmy Carter. The award was also presented in 1973 to Henry Kissinger.

The choice of the former Secretary of State, considered in many countries as the embodiment of brutality and diplomatic cynicism, had been widely criticized.

The full list of Nobel Peace Prize candidates is confidential—except for individual announcements by their sponsors—but their number is made public. By 2025, there will be 338.

Some betting sites are putting Trump in second place to win, behind Yulia Navalnaya, widow of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.