The report follows Trump’s claim on Friday that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize for opening talks and easing tensions with North Korea.
This, while Prime Minister Abe had received a request from President Donald Trump’s government to nominate Trump for the prize.
The U.S. government had sounded Abe out over the Noble Peace Prize nomination after Trump’s summit in June last year with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, the first meeting between a North Korean leader and a sitting U.S. president.
The Japanese leader had given him “the most beautiful copy” of a five-page nomination letter, Trump said at a White House news conference.
Both the White House and Japan’s Foreign Ministry refrained from commenting on the matter, even as the Nobel Foundation’s website says a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize may be submitted by any person who meets the nomination criteria, including current heads of states.