Did Gavin Newsom win 2025 Nobel Peace Prize?

In early October 2025, a claim began spreading online that California Gov. Gavin Newsom won the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize. The rumor, which also alleged that U.S President Donald Trump "exploded with rage" over the decision, played on Trump's past remarks about deserving the prize — a recurring theme in Trump's speeches and social media posts over the years.

On Oct. 7, the Governor Newsom Press Office official X account shared (archived) a screenshot with the text, "Trump Explodes with Rage after Gavin Newsom Wins Nobel Peace Prize," captioning it:

WOW! THANK YOU TO THE GREAT PEOPLE OF NORWAY, SWEDEN, FINLAND, AND WHATEVER OTHER COUNTRIES AGREED THAT I'M THE BEST!!! THE LOSER HATERS SAID I WAS TOO HANDSOME, TOO SMART, TOO PERFECT FOR THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE — WRONG!!! WHEN CALIFORNIA WINS, THE WORLD WINS!!! AN HONOR! — GCN

(X account @GovPressOffice)

The writing style in the X post appeared to mimic that of Trump, known for his frequent use of uppercase letters and exclamation marks. It was not the first time Newsom used social media posts to mockingly imitate the president's writing style.

The claim about Newsom winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 2025 spread primarily on X and Facebook. Some readers seemed to interpret the rumor as a factual recounting of real-life events and turned to Snopes' website to verify whether it was true. However, the story was not real and it originated as satire.

Origin of the rumor

The rumor originated from Andy Borowitz, a comedian and satirist known for creating the satirical publication The Borowitz Report, which he began publishing online in 2001. The site's about page reads, in part:

I've been writing satirical news since I was eighteen.

[ ... ]

Then, in 2001, I started emailing made-up news stories to friends. One suggested that creating a "website" would make it easier to "blast" my "posts." Soon, The Borowitz Report was live at BorowitzReport.com, and my free newsletter was reaching untold dozens of people.

The rumor stemmed from an Oct. 7, 2025, article (archived), titled, "Trump Explodes with Rage after Gavin Newsom Wins Nobel Peace Prize," that read:

OSLO (The Borowitz Report)—Donald J. Trump reportedly "exploded with rage" on Tuesday after the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the 2025 Peace Prize to California Governor Gavin Newsom.

In its official statement, the Nobel committee praised Newsom for "demonstrating his dedication to the principle of peace by preventing an armed conflict between California and Oregon."

Though the committee did not bestow its prize on Trump, it did recognize him with a laser printed "certificate of participation."

"Deciding who will win the Peace Prize is an exhausting and stressful process," the committee stated. "Donald Trump's entry gave us many hours of welcome laughter."

Borowitz also shared the story on Facebook. Multiple users who shared and commented on the post seemingly believed the story was real.

Newsom and the Nobel Peace Prize

According to the Nobel Peace Prize website (archived), the "laureate(s) of 2025 will be announced on Friday 10 October, with the award ceremony taking place on 10 December in Oslo, Norway." Therefore, at the time the rumor circulated, the winner of the 2025 prize had not yet been announced.

There was no indication that Newsom had even been nominated, despite a meme he shared in mid-August 2025, mentioning "worldwide calls" for him to receive the prize. The post and accompanying graphic were styled after and appeared to mock Trump's past self-promotional messages about the Nobel Peace Prize.

(X account @GovPressOffice)

Newsom addressed Trump's Nobel campaign more directly in a mid-August 2025 interview with YouTuber Brian Tyler Cohen, calling him a "wartime president":

War on women. War on voting rights. War on Hispanics. A war on this state. War on institutions. War on history. I mean, this is serious. This guy's trying to get a Nobel Peace Prize. That's what he's going to try to say tomorrow in in Alaska, that he's the big guy trying to find peace. Really? When he's bringing war to the American people. He put military in the streets, not a Baghdad. He didn't send the military in his first administration anywhere in the world. He sent the United States Marines into the United States of America in one of the bluest cities in this country in Los Angeles, one of the great cities, American cities. That's what Donald Trump did. He is a wartime president.

We've unpacked several rumors regarding Nobel Prize nominations that are available in this collection.

For background, here is why we alert readers to rumors created by sources that call their output humorous or satirical.