US President Donald Trump on Wednesday revelled in his nomination for 2021 Nobel Peace Prize by a right-wing Norwegian politician, reported AFP. Trump tweeted “Thank you!” in one of his many tweets celebrating the nomination. 

Norwegian member of parliament Christian Tybring-Gjedde told AFP that he has nominated due to his role in brokering an agreement to normalize relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates.

A member of the right-wing, anti-immigration Progress Party, Tybring-Gjedde is the deputy chair of the Norwegian parliament’s committee on foreign and defense affairs. He had previously unsuccessfully proposed Trump, along with another lawmaker, for the Nobel in 2018, citing his rapprochement with North Korea. That spectacular attempt at breaking the US standoff with the isolated, nuclear-armed dictatorship has since lost momentum.

The Norwegian Nobel Institute welcomes hundreds of people are nominated every year for Nobel prizes, with no guarantee of being picked as long as they are sent in by January 31 for the year in question and are submitted by those eligible to nominate, which includes members of the country’s parliament. 

Trump has previously complained that he has not been considered more seriously for the peace prize, expressing bitterness that his Democratic predecessor Barack Obama was awarded the prestigious honor at the start of his first term in 2009. He said, “They gave it to Obama. He didn’t even know what he got it for. He was there for about 15 seconds and he got the Nobel Prize. I probably will never get it.”

According to Tybring-Gjedde, the Nobel committee should not be swayed by any controversy over Trump’s divisive style. He said, “Whether it’s the 1978 Camp David accords or the 1993 Oslo accords, the Nobel Peace Prize has been given to the protagonists and this agreement is at least as revolutionary for the Middle East. For Nobel laureates, whether they are in… literature or chemistry, nobody cares about their personality.”