The August 26 White House cabinet meeting was about a lot of things, including the India-Pakistan ceasefire, the Russia-Ukraine crisis, and Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s engagement. Given the recent state of affairs, US President Donald Trump’s bid to position himself as a worthy Nobel Peace Prize nominee also continued in the presence of significant officials like Howard Lutnick, Pete Hegseth, and Marco Rubio to name a few.
Eventually Steve Witkoff, United States Special Envoy to the Middle East, also joined the conversation, pitching Trump as the “single finest candidate” ever.
The US president has long boasted his self-proclaimed identity as a “peacemaker” solving global wars. And so, Witkoff grabbed everyone’s attention across the table, proclaiming, “There’s only one thing I wish for: That that Nobel committee finally gets its act together and realises that you are the single-finest candidate since the Nobel award was ever talked about.”
The 79-year-old commander-in-chief initially maintained a stoic reaction and looked straight ahead instead of turning to Witkoff. However, the US envoy’s fawning sycophancy undeniably grasped his attention, as he turned to the side to face him, with his face lighting up with a smile. And so, Witkoff continued, “Your success is game-changing in the world. I hope everybody wakes up and realises that.” When the Trump aide was done speaking, the entire room erupted in applause.
Witkoff: "There's only one thing I wish for: that that Nobel committee finally gets its act together and realizes that you are the single finest candidate since that Nobel award was ever talked about." pic.twitter.com/aIKOIBd5L6
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 26, 2025
Trump to chair meeting on post-war Gaza
During an interview with Fox News, Witkoff briefly announced that Trump would be chairing a crucial meeting on post-war plans for Gaza on Wednesday, August 27. “We’ve got a large meeting in the White House tomorrow, chaired by the president, and it’s a very comprehensive plan we’re putting together on the next day,” the US envoy said. Without sharing much detail, he added the world would “see how robust it is and how it’s, how well meaning, it is.”
He further shared, “I’m meeting with the Ukrainians this week. So I will be meeting with them this week in New York, and that’s a big signal. We talk to the Russians every day.”
Some officials, world leaders who’ve nominated Trump for Nobel Peace Prize
Just earlier this month, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said during a podcast appearance that she was also open to nominating Trump for Nobel Peace Prize if he secured an end to the war in Ukraine without the country ceding territory to Russia.
Having long desire the prize, Trump’s friends and even lawmakers have repeatedly nominated him. Previously, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan expressed he was ready to “promote” the US president for the prestigious honours. Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev also readily approved the idea to sign the nomination papers during a trilateral event at the White House on August 8, 2025.
In the wake of the days-long India-Pakistan conflict, the Pakistan government also willingly gave in to the idea, saying it was nominating Trump in “recognition of his decisive diplomatic intervention and pivotal leadership.” Come July, Israel’s PM Benjamin Netanyahu handed a letter to Trump at the White House, revealing he had sent it to the Nobel committee naming him as a nominee.
Cambodian PM Hun Manet joined in the streak next month, saying his nomination of Trump was attributed to his “direct attention to initiating and pushing for a ceasefire between the Cambodian army and Thai army.”
Trump on playing ‘peacemaker’ between countries
Nearly two weeks ago, Trump proudly told reporters at the official residence that he had solved six wars in over six months since beginning his second presidential term in January. Just the evening before his meeting with Vladimir Putin in Alaska, he called the Russia-Ukraine conflict the “most difficult” to solve. “We have one war raging as you know for 37 years, one in the Congo with Rwanda was raging for 31 year… We solved six of them, not just solved them, made peace,” he added at the time.
A White House official recently told Politico, Trump “loves being in the position to be a kingmaker for all of these smaller, weaker countries around the world.” Meanwhile, an NBC News report quoted another White House official, saying that the president already knew that he wouldn’t be getting the award.
“The president feels that he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize, but does not think he will get it,” they said. “He has remarked that it will go to someone who writes a book about how Donald Trump thinks rather than Donald Trump himself.”