Trump Nobel Peace Prize nomination was fake, Nobel Institute suspects

Deutsche Welle

Show Caption Hide Caption Nobel committee investigating fake Peace Prize nomination for Trump President Trump has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize, but it appears the nomination may have been faked. Now the Nobel committee is investigating. Nathan Rousseau Smith reports.

President Trump's nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize was fake, the head of the Norwegian Nobel Institute said Wednesday.

"We have good reason to believe that a nomination we received concerning Trump has been falsified," Institute Director Olav Njolstad told the AFP news agency.

Njolstad refused to give more details about who was behind the nomination: "We never comment on valid nominations — that would violate our statutes." He said the institute had filed a police complaint about the incident.

The Peace Research Institute of Oslo (Prio), an unaffiliated organization, first reported in mid-February that Trump's name had made the list after a Jan. 31 deadline.

People eligible to submit nominations include select lawmakers, former winners and some academics. The institute keeps details about proposals and deliberations secret for 50 years.

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The unidentified American who nominated the U.S. president reportedly cited Trump's "ideology of peace by force" for their submission. A similar reason accompanied a nomination for Trump to win the 2017 prize.

The Nobel Institute said they have counted 329 valid nominations for 2018. A five-member Nobel committee is set to sift through the names and pick a winner, with an announcement slated for early October.

The Nobel Peace Prize was first awarded in 1901 in honor of the Swedish engineer, Alfred Nobel, who invented dynamite.

Past laureates include Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King Jr.

This article was originally posted on DW.com. Its content is created separate from USA TODAY.