Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Manet stunned the world Sunday by nominating Donald Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize, crediting the former U.S. President with ending decades of deadly border clashes between Cambodia and Thailand through the historic Kuala Lumpur Peace Accords. Standing beside Trump and Thai PM Anutin Charnvirakul, Hun declared, “Peace saves lives – and President Trump delivered it.” The accords, signed in a glittering ASEAN summit ceremony, formally bury the hatchet over disputed temples and jungle frontiers that claimed hundreds of lives since 2008.
Trump, grinning ear-to-ear, shook hands with both leaders as Malaysian PM Anwar Ibrahim – the deal’s chief mediator – hailed it as “ASEAN’s finest hour.” Hun’s nomination letter praised Trump’s “personal phone diplomacy” that pressured both governments into talks after years of failed UN efforts. “He didn’t just tweet – he picked up the phone at 3 AM and made leaders listen,” a Cambodian official revealed. The treaty includes joint military patrols, trade corridors, and a $2 billion cross-border economic zone – a blueprint Trump reportedly sketched on a napkin during a Mar-a-Lago dinner with Hun last year.
Cambodia now joins an unprecedented alliance of eight nations backing Trump for the Nobel, dwarfing any living politician’s endorsements. Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu filed first, thanking Trump for the Israel-Hamas ceasefire and Abraham Accords 2.0. Pakistan shocked India by nominating him for the LOC de-escalation (New Delhi called it “fiction”). Rwanda credited him with silencing Congo border militias. Armenia and Azerbaijan jointly endorsed him after their Nagorno-Karabakh truce – a deal sealed with Trump’s envoy in Baku.
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Even tiny Malta jumped in, with Foreign Minister Ian Borg praising Trump’s “Gaza-to-Caucasus” shuttle diplomacy. In Washington, four Republican lawmakers – Anna Paulina Luna, Buddy Carter, Darrell Issa, and Claudia Tenney – submitted formal papers to Oslo, while the Israeli Hostages Families Forum sent a tear-stained letter thanking Trump for freeing 47 captives in the Gaza deal. “He called Hamas directly – something Biden never did,” a forum spokesperson claimed.
The Nobel Committee now faces its toughest decision in decades. With eight sovereign nominations – exceeding Obama’s single-nation push in 2009 – Trump’s file is thicker than any in history. Critics scream “publicity stunt,” but supporters point to zero border deaths in Cambodia-Thailand since the accords, hostage videos of freed captives hugging Trump, and satellite imagery showing demilitarized zones in three continents. As one ASEAN diplomat whispered, “If brokering peace isn’t Nobel-worthy, what is?” Oslo’s verdict drops in February – and the world is watching.
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