Despite his tough stance on ISIS and his promises of strong military action, some view Republican presidential candidate and 1968 Wharton graduate Donald Trump as an arbiter of peace. On Tuesday, he was anonymously nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
The nomination letter was sent to the Norwegian Nobel Committee in Oslo, where the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded annually. A copy was also sent to Peace Research Institute Oslo Director Kristian Berg Harpviken, who has leaked some of the letter’s language.
The letter reportedly praises Trump’s “vigorous peace through strength ideology, used as a threat weapon of deterrence against radical Islam, ISIS, nuclear Iran and Communist China.”
The nomination comes shortly after Trump lost the Iowa Republican caucus to Ted Cruz. During his campaign, he has repeatedly promised to take tough stances against ISIS, Iran and China. In December, he made headlines by proposing a travel ban on all Muslims entering the United States.
Although official lists of Nobel Peace Prize nominees can not be released for 50 years, this year’s nominees reportedly include Pope Francis, Edward Snowden, a Greek island that welcomed Syrian refugees, an escaped ISIS sex slave and negotiators who helped end decades of civil war in Colombia, according to Harpviken.
The Nobel Peace Prize’s selection committee receives over 200 nomination letters every year. To be valid, the Nobel Foundation requires that submissions for the prize come from past Nobel Peace Prize winners or members of national legislatures, international courts, professors in various social sciences, active and former members of the Norwegian Nobel Committees, according to the Nobel Prize website.
Trump’s controversial nomination is the latest chapter in Penn’s long history with the Nobel Prize. A total of 28 Nobel Prize winners have been affiliated with Penn, including 12 alumni. The last — and only — person from Penn to win the Nobel Peace Prize was Martin Luther King, Jr., who briefly went to Penn as a graduate student and received the award in 1964.
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