Pillay chaired UN commission that found Israel guilty of genocide

Donald Trump on Friday devoted a long portion of a rally in Syracuse, New York that was supposed to be for other Republican candidates to airing grievances with the Nobel Committee after it awarded the 2026 peace prize to someone other than himself.

The 2026 Nobel Peace Prize went to Navi Pillay, the South African former UN human rights chief who chaired the UN commission that concluded Israel was guilty of genocide in Gaza.

“The United States of America, represented by me as your president, should have received the Nobel peace prize, but didn’t,” Trump said. “And this is an indelible stain on the country of Norway, and those people that made such a disgraceful and embarrassing decision.”

“The Nobel peace prize has been forever discredited by a handful of radical ideologues who are anti-democracy and really enemies of civilization,” Trump said. “We will not forget, Norway, that you didn’t give this prize.”

Trump said of Navi Pillay: “Despite all of this and all of these unbelievable accomplishments, the Nobel prize was given out today to a liberal person who works at the United Nations, who nobody has ever heard of.”

The remarks came a year in which Trump started a war with Iran. He also recited a list of wars he claims to have settled, some of which were not wars and some that are still not settled, according to the Guardian, before adding: “I’m about to settle or win two more: Iran and Russia-Ukraine.” He said he would end both wars “quickly.”

“Iran will be very quick one way or the other: that they give us everything or they don’t exist any longer,” Trump said.

“Additionally, I stopped Iran from having a nuclear weapon and blowing up the entire Middle East and ultimately far beyond the Middle East, including Europe, perhaps the US and I saved more lives than anyone in history,” Trump claimed.

US intelligence agencies reported to Congress in 2025 that Iran had actually suspended its pursuit of nuclear weapons in 2003, the Guardian reported.

Trump did not specify what consequences Norway might face for the committee’s decision.