President Trump’s Nobel Peace Prize nomination created shock waves on social media, with conservatives hailing it and liberals railing against it this morning.
Trump was nominated by Norwegian Parliament member Christian Tybring-Gjedde, who also serves as chairman of the Norwegian delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly.
Tybring-Gjedde cited the president’s role in brokering a landmark normalization deal between Israel and the United Arab Emirates.
The two nations agreed last month to a historic deal normalizing relations and are scheduled to sign it at the White House on Sept. 15.
“For his merit, I think he has done more trying to create peace between nations than most other Peace Prize nominees,” Tybring-Gjedde said, referring to Trump.
Tybring-Gjedde attended Loyola University Chicago on a water polo scholarship between 1984 and 1988.
Any national lawmaker can nominate someone for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Tybring-Gjedde has been a member of the Storting, the Norwegian parliament, since 2005.
He is known for being pro-Israel and for opposing immigration policies that he thinks have been too welcoming.
The lawmaker has often demanded that immigrants adjust to Norwegian society.
He called Muslim headscarves an “Islamic uniform” and compared them to robes worn by members of the Ku Klux Klan.
The process of considering candidates and awarding the prize is done in Norway, in contrast to the other Nobel Prizes, which are awarded in neighboring Sweden.
Nominations must be sent to the Norwegian Nobel Committee by Feb. 1.
There have already been 338 nominations submitted.
Former President Obama was awarded the prize in 2009 only months into his first term, a move many felt was premature.
The Norwegian committee said it honored Obama for his commitment to “seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons.”
Last year, Trump predicted he would win the Nobel Prize “for a lot of things if they gave it out fairly, which they don’t.”