A far-right member of the Norwegian Parliament said Wednesday that he nominated President Donald Trump for the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize, citing the president’s efforts in establishing a peace deal between Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Christian Tybring-Gjedde, a four-term member of the Parliament who also acts as chairman of the Norwegian delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, praised Trump for “trying to create peace between nations than most other Peace Prize nominees,” Tybring-Gjedde told Fox News.

In the nomination letter to the Nobel Committee, Tybring-Gjedde lauded the White House’s efforts in the Middle East and for resolving conflicts worldwide.

“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,” Tybring-Gjedde wrote.

He added that Trump has played a vital role in “facilitating contact between conflicting parties and … creating new dynamics in other protracted conflicts, such as the Kashmir border dispute between India and Pakistan, and the conflict between North and South Korea, as well as dealing with the nuclear capabilities of North Korea.”

Tybring-Gjedde also applauded the president for withdrawing troops from the Middle East, ending a “39-year-old streak of American Presidents either starting a war or bringing the United States into an international armed conflict.”

In response to his nomination, Trump took to Twitter, retweeting a link to the Jerusalem Post’s article that addressed his Nobel Peace Prize nomination, saying “Thank you!” The president then retweeted a swarm of news articles covering his nomination. 

Tybring-Gjedde, member of the far-right Progress Party, didn’t nominate Trump due to his rhetoric or to boost his 2020 presidential election bid. 

“I’m not a big Trump supporter,” he said. “The committee should look at the facts and judge him on the facts—not on the way he behaves sometimes. The people who have received the Peace Prize in recent years have done much less than Donald Trump. For example, Barack Obama did nothing.”

This isn’t Trump’s first nomination, as Tybring-Gjedde, along with the help of another Norwegian official, submitted one in 2018 for his efforts to encourage reconciliation between North and South Korea. 

Other presidents have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, including President Barack Obama in 2009, President Theodore Roosevelt in 1906, President Woodrow Wilson in 1920 and President Jimmy Carter in 2002. 

In 2009, Obama received the prize for his “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples,” according to the Nobel Committee. The decision, however, received pushback from lawmakers and citizens across the country, including then-private citizen Donald Trump.

Obama even said he was “surprised and humbled” for the win, noting that he did “not feel that I deserve to be in the company of so many of the transformative figures who have been honored by this prize, men and women who’ve inspired me and inspired the entire world through their courageous pursuit of peace.”

The 2021 Nobel Peace Prize winner will not be announced until October of next year.

Rachel Bucchino is a reporter at the National Interest. Her work has appeared in The Washington Post, U.S. News & World Report and The Hill.

Image: Reuters