Republican Congressman Luke Messer and 17 other House Republicans have nominated President Donald Trump for the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to get North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to the table and end the nuclear program in North Korea, The Huffington Post reports.
“Although North Korea has evaded demands from the international community to cease its aggression for decades, President Trump’s peace through strength policies are working and bringing peace to the Korean peninsula,” the lawmakers wrote in the nomination letter. “We can think of no one more deserving of the Committee’s recognition in 2019 than President Trump for his tireless work to bring peace to our world.”
Today, 17 of my House colleagues joined me in nominating @realDonaldTrump for the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize. pic.twitter.com/TJpJKW9JGH
— Rep. Luke Messer (@RepLukeMesser) May 2, 2018
According to the guidelines from the Norwegian Nobel Committee, members of Congress can be nominators for the Nobel Peace Prize.
The nomination letter comes just days before Rep. Messer, who is the leader of the nomination effort, faces his primary for the U.S. Senate, ABC News reports. According to HuffPost, most of the race for the Senate seat has been about proving how much the candidates are like Trump. During the campaign, Messer has called himself a “conservative who supports the Trump/Pence agenda.”
Trump had agreed to meet with Kim Jong Un in late May or early June, HuffPost reports. On Tuesday, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that the exact date and location for the meeting in the next “couple of days,” ABC News reports.
“We're setting up meetings right now and I think it's probably going to be announced over the next couple of days – location and date,” Trump said.
A message from Kim Jong Un: “North Korea will stop nuclear tests and launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles.”
Also will “Shut down a nuclear test site in the country’s Northern Side to prove the vow to suspend nuclear tests.” Progress being made for all!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 21, 2018
The meeting between Trump and Kim comes after South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Kim met to discuss the remove nuclear weapons from the Korean peninsula and work to end the Korean War.
Just last week at a rally in Michigan, the crowd began to chant “No-bel, No-bel, No-bel” when Trump mentioned North Korea, HuffPost reports.
Four U.S. Presidents have received the Nobel Peace Prize: Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama. The Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded Obama the Nobel Peace Prize for his “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples,” and “attached special importance to Obama’s vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons.”