President Donald Trump responds to his latest Nobel Peace Prize snub by amplifying an attack that accuses the Norwegian Nobel Committee of disgracing itself by selecting South African human rights lawyer Navi Pillay.
Shortly after Pillay was announced as the 2026 winner for her contributions to international law, Trump reposted a message from his former attorney David Schoen, who had represented him during his second impeachment trial.
“Today the Nobel Committee shamed itself beyond repair and demeaned the once great Nobel Peace Prize by giving it to the UN’s Navi Pillay,” Schoen wrote.
Schoen called Pillay “an unabashed hater of America and Israel” and accused her of celebrating terrorists and rewarding Hamas, without providing evidence for those allegations.
He also attacked a United Nations commission Pillay chaired, which concluded last year that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza. Israel has rejected that finding.
“She has no credibility in any normal sphere and has never done a thing to foster peace,” Schoen wrote. “Just the opposite.”
The attorney then claimed that Trump should have been awarded the prize, giving as reasons his Abraham Accords, his efforts to secure the release of the hostages, and his attempts to end Russia’s war in Ukraine.
“President Trump gave us the Abraham Accords, which the world said would be impossible and is now expanding them!” Schoen wrote.
“He brought home the hostages when all seemed hopeless!” he added.
Schoen concluded that Trump’s achievements were “the kinds of things the Nobel Peace Prize was intended to recognize and reward[!]”
The attack followed Trump’s repeated pleading for his own nomination, arguing that his diplomatic record made him uniquely worthy.
Less than two days before the announcement, Trump said to reporters at the White House that no one in the history of the prize had deserved it more, adding his false claim that he had settled eight wars.
Pillay, who is 85 years old, had earlier held the position of United Nations high commissioner for human rights and that of a judge at both the International Criminal Court and the tribunal which investigated the Rwandan genocide.
The Nobel Committee lauded her many years of work in the promotion of international justice, especially her efforts to secure accountability for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.
Pillay also seemed to make a joke about Trump’s attempt to obtain the honor while celebrating her win with her colleagues in Germany.
“If you clap a little bit more, I may share this prize with Trump,” she joked.
The award will officially be presented in Oslo on December 10th.