For roughly two months, a rumor circulated online that U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to bomb Norway if he didn't win the Nobel Peace Prize, which would be awarded later in the year (on Oct. 10) by the Norwegian Nobel Committee.
For example, in early August 2025, one X user said (archived):
WASHINGTON—In a statement that raised eyebrows in diplomatic circles, Donald J. Trump said on Friday that if he is not awarded the Nobel Peace Prize he will bomb Norway.
Warning Norway against "treating me very unfairly," Trump argued that he deserved the Peace Prize for "dropping a million bombs on Iran."
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt warned Norway against taking Trump's threat of destruction lightly, adding, "Look at what he's done to the United States."
Writing in Hindi at the end of the post, the account added (translated to English using Google): "Oh brother, someone please bring him to the insane hospital in Agra. His mind will be set right there."
Other examples of the claim had appeared on Facebook and Bluesky since late June 2025.
(X user @izeennatrana)
Some readers seemed to take the claim at face value. However, there was no evidence that Trump had threatened to bomb Norway if he didn't win the prestigious award. Searching for the terms "Trump," "bomb," "Norway," and "Nobel Peace Prize" on Google produced no evidence of any news media outlets publishing articles about him making such remarks (archived). If he had said he would bomb a NATO ally in such circumstances, numerous reports would exist; however, this was not the case.
Rather, the rumor originated with The Borowitz Report — a website run by comedian Andy Borowitz that describes its output as satirical. Its "about page" has long stated: "If you're meeting me for the first time, I'm Andy Borowitz, a writer and comedian … I've been writing satirical news since I was eighteen."
The source of the claim was a satirical article Borowitz published on June 26, 2025 (archived). The headline read: "Trump Warns if He Does Not Win Nobel Peace Prize He Will Bomb Norway."
On Aug. 1, Borowitz posted the satirical rumor again, this time on Facebook (archived), which led to more social media users sharing the fabricated story.
Snopes has previously addressed numerous rumors originating from The Borowitz Report, such as when it published a satirical story about Trump urging the Vatican to select the new pope from the cast of "Fox & Friends."
The fictional claim about Trump potentially bombing Norway initially spread in late June and early July, days after the U.S. president said he deserved the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in helping countries settle drawn-out conflicts, such as those between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Serbia and Kosovo and India and Pakistan (archived).
On June 20, he wrote a post on Truth Social (archived) — the social media platform owned by Trump Media & Technology Group — saying he "won't get a Nobel Peace Prize for" arranging "a wonderful Treaty between the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the Republic of Rwanda, in their War, which was known for violent bloodshed and death."
However, the rumor resurfaced after Trump's Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters at a White House press briefing on July 31 (at the 2:20 time stamp) that "it's well past time that President Trump was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize" after he reportedly helped broker a peace deal between Thailand and Cambodia following rising tensions between the two Southeast Asian countries.
For background, here is why we alert readers to rumors created by sources that call their output humorous or satirical.