Secretary of War Pete Hegseth believes the US military should receive the Nobel Peace Prize every year
US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth on Friday praised the “decisive military results” in the war against Iran and said the US military should be recognized with a Nobel Peace Prize “every year” for ensuring global security.
“The only institution that should win the Nobel Peace Prize every year is the armed forces of the United States, because we are the guarantor of the security and protection not only of our country, but also of many people in this world”, declared Pete Hegseth in a press conference, EFE and Agerpres report.
Pete Hegseth thus answered a question from the entertainment site TMZ, which made its debut in this press conference as an accredited media outlet in Washington, namely whether he would consider changing the name of the US Department of Defense – renamed the Department of War to better reflect the position of the government of US President Donald Trump – to the Department of Peace.
Last fall, Donald Trump signed a presidential order renaming the Department of Defense the War Department.
“That's the aspiration. We actually moved from Defense to War because we want to be proactive in achieving 'peace through force,'” replied Pete Hegseth, who warned that this slogan “isn't just empty words” because “when you start a war the right way, the ultimate goal is to achieve peace.”
Hegseth, known for his threats against “enemies of the US”, had said minutes earlier that his job was to ensure that US forces could use “maximum violence” against their adversaries.
Asked about Pope Leo's anti-war comments, Hegseth indicated that the first American pope in history “will go his own way, and that's fine.”
“We know what our mission is. We know what authority we have. We're very clear in our minds. We're following the president's orders, we've got lawyers everywhere looking at what we're doing and why we're doing it, and they're giving us all the necessary authority, under our Constitution and our laws, to carry that out,” the US official added in an attempt to avoid escalating controversy with the Holy See after a tense meeting with the apostolic nuncio at the Pentagon earlier this month.
President Trump and his administration have been criticized by Democratic members of Congress for what they consider an overreach of prerogatives, the current American head of state not having the approval of lawmakers for the war initiated together with Israel against Iran on February 28.
The Democratic minority tried unsuccessfully to pass measures to limit the war powers of President Trump, who has not been shy about making public his desire to receive the Nobel Peace Prize and harshly criticized the Norwegian Nobel Committee after not receiving the award in 2025, despite the fact that it says it has ended several international conflicts.
