Republican Floats Melania Trump for Nobel Peace Prize

Florida House Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna has suggested First Lady Melania Trump, along with her husband President Trump, could be nominated for the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize, arguing she will be a “key reason” for a Ukraine peace settlement.

Newsweek contacted the First Lady’s office for comment on Saturday via email outside of regular office hours.

Why It Matters

President Trump has been nominated for the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize by the governments of Rwanda, Israel, Gabon, Azerbaijan and Cambodia along with various private individuals.

In 2009, just eight months into his presidency, Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize in a move that the current president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., described earlier this year as “affirmative action”.

What To Know

Luna, a Trump loyalist who represents Florida’s 13th congressional district, was asked about the president’s Nobel Peace Prize nominations during a Fox News appearance on Friday.

The host asked whether “the Nobel Peace Prize committee people will actually come around” before suggesting that “at some point I guess maybe they need him more than he needs them.”

Luna replied: “Most certainly if the Nobel Peace Prize committee knows what’s good for them they’d [do the] right thing and nominate him, but also I think that Melania Trump might also have a nomination. I think she’s been very instrumental in discussions with Russia and also I think she’s going to be a key reason why we’re able to broker peace with Ukraine.”

According to the official Nobel Peace Prize website its award can be shared between a maximum of three people or groups.

Earlier this month, Trump gave Russian President Vladimir Putin a letter from his wife during a summit in Alaska held to discuss the ongoing war in Ukraine.

The letter, a copy of which was sent to Newsweek by Melania’s office, called on the Russian leader to safeguard children. Reuters news agency initially reported the letter referred to the thousands of Ukrainian children reportedly abducted by Russian forces since the invasion began in February 2022, but the letter only referred to helping children in general terms.

Trump’s talks with Putin in Alaska failed to achieve a breakthrough and the Russian bombardment of Ukrainian cities has continued, including an attack on Thursday which killed 23 people, including four children, in Kyiv according to the BBC.

But Trump’s attention could be turning to countries a little closer to home. In recent days the U.S. has deployed multiple warships and 4,500 troops off the coast of Venezuela in what the White House insists is an anti-drug cartel operation. However the move has infuriated Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who suggested the U.S. could be preparing for an invasion.

Betting website Oddspedia is currently showing odds of 28.57 percent on Trump winning the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize, putting him level with Russian human rights campaigner Yulia Navalnaya.

They are followed by the United Nations Relief Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East on 14.29 percent, and Sudan’s Emergency Response Rooms with 11.11 percent.

What People Are Saying

In First Lady Trump’s letter to Putin she wrote: “As parents, it is our duty to nurture the next generation’s hope. As leaders, the responsibility to sustain our children extends beyond the comfort of a few. Undeniably, we must strive to paint a dignity-filled world for all—so that every soul may wake to peace, and so that the future itself is perfectly guarded…

“In protecting the innocence of these children, you will do more than serve Russia alone—you serve humanity itself. Such a bold idea transcends all human division, and you, Mr. Putin, are fit to implement this vision with a stroke of the pen today.”

Addressing Trump earlier this week at a Cabinet meeting Steve Witkoff, the president’s special envoy to the Middle East, urged the Nobel Committee to award him its peace prize.

He said: “There’s only one thing I wish for—that the Nobel committee finally gets its act together and realizes that you are the single finest candidate since this Nobel award was ever talked about. Your success is game-changing out in the world today, and I hope everybody wakes up and realizes that.”