While many US-based netizens issued posts honoring the 2,997 lives lost on September 11, 2001, the Trump-Pence reelection team was presented with news so urgent that the ad’s text, which reads “Noble” rather than “Nobel” Peace Prize, apparently had to bypass an editor - or even a once-over.
Trump ad misspells "Nobel" Peace Prize pic.twitter.com/0wygQ8QTJ8
— ryan teague beckwith (@ryanbeckwith) September 11, 2020
Though the ad has since been pulled from Facebook and Instagram, screenshots of the botched brag are still circulating on various platforms. The Daily Beast also confirmed the existence of the since-deleted ad.
At the same time, Trump’s embattled campaign team could argue that they were taking cues from their boss, who made the same spelling error in an April tweet. He later claimed his apparent mistake was actually an example of his sarcasm.
No Nobel Prizes or Spelling Bee Awards for our stable genius. pic.twitter.com/UkD2rxRxkQ
— Julia Davis (@JuliaDavisNews) April 26, 2020
Norwegian Progress Party lawmaker Christian Tybring-Gjedde revealed to the Associated Press on Wednesday that he filed one of the two nominations Trump received. He claimed to have reached his decision based on the president’s work on the “peace agreement between the United Arab Emirates and Israel which opens up for possible peace in the Middle East.”
“As it is expected other Middle Eastern countries will follow in the footsteps of the UAE, this agreement could be a game changer that will turn the Middle East into a region of cooperation and prosperity,” he wrote in his nomination letter for the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize, Fox News reported. He went on to praise Trump breaking a “39-year-old streak of American Presidents either starting a war or bringing the United States into an international armed conflict.”
Swedish lawmaker Magnus Jacobsson announced on Friday that he had also nominated the “US government” for the prize, presumably translating to another bid for Trump to receive the award.
I have nominated the US Gov. and the governments of Kosovo and Serbia for the Nobel Peace Prize for their joint work for peace and economic development, through the cooperation agreement signed in the White House. Trade and communications are important building blocks for peace. pic.twitter.com/XuhkLbHZAV
— Magnus Jacobsson (@magnusjacobsson) September 11, 2020
At the same time, the US president’s nominations come alongside more than 192,448 novel coronavirus-related deaths in the US, according to data from Johns Hopkins University’s COVID-19 dashboard. Experts have suggested that the pandemic’s spread could have been lessened, if not for Trump’s public rejection of the contagious disease’s predicted impact.
It’s worth noting that a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize “may be submitted by any person who meets the nomination criteria” detailed on the award’s website. Furthermore, the final recipient is determined by the Norwegian Nobel Committee. The six-member group is made up of five individuals appointed to six-year terms by the Storting - the Norwegian parliament - and headed by the secretariat of the Norwegian Nobel Institute. Olav Njølstad has held this role since 2015.
Tybring-Gjedde, who has been a member of parliament since 2005 and presently serves as chairman of the Norwegian delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, continued to express his support for Trump in an exclusive Friday interview with Fox News.
“For his merit, I think he has done more trying to create peace between nations than most other Peace Prize nominees,” he argued.
The lawmaker’s political career has been framed by his repeated rejection of the global scientific consensus on climate change, as well as his opposition to immigration in Norway.
Tybring-Gjedde previously released an anti-immigration book that argued extending asylum to too many migrants would bring about cultural ruin and economic disaster.
The finalized list of 2021 Nobel Peace Prize recipients will be announced in October 2021.
