The headline for a recent article from Rush Limbaugh’s website declares: “President Trump Joins Your Host as a Nobel Peace Prize Nominee.”

Trump was nominated for the prize by Christian Tybring-Gjedde, a far-right member of the Norwegian parliament, for Trump’s role in facilitating an agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates. The Norwegian Nobel Prize Committeeaccepts nominations from thousands of officials at the national level of government, university professors, past Peace Prize winners, and current and former members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, among others. A total of 211 individuals and 107 organizations were nominated in 2020, and the names of nominees are not revealed by the committee for 50 years, with knowledge of Tybring-Gjedde’s nomination of Trump becoming public only because he announced he’d done so. This was, in fact, the second time Tybring-Gjedde has nominated Trump, with the first nomination coming after Trump’s talks with North Korea in 2018. 

Limbaugh was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 by Landmark Legal Foundation, a conservative legal advocacy group, in response to Al Gore being nominated that year. The foundation does not now and did not then meet the criteria to be a nominator. Even if somehow Landmark Legal Foundation was deemed an acceptable nominator, it would have been a moot point in 2007: While currently anyone on the Nobel Committee’s list of qualified nominators can submit a nomination, in 2007 nominations were by invitation only. The Nobel website explained at the time that “The Nobel Committee sends confidential forms to persons who are competent and qualified to nominate.” Mark Levin, then-president of Landmark Legal Foundation, noted in his nomination letter that Limbaugh’s nomination was “unsolicited.” It’s unclear if Limbaugh was being facetious in bragging about his “nomination,” which, presumably, he would know isn’t real.

Donald Trump has, indeed, been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. But given Landmark Legal Foundation’s lack of standing to nominate Limbaugh, it’s inaccurate to say Trump is joining Limbaugh as a Nobel Peace Prize nominee. 

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