Did 70K Cambodian monks nominate Trump for Nobel Peace Prize?

In August 2025, after U.S. President Donald Trump reportedly helped start ceasefire negotiations in the armed conflict between Thailand and Cambodia, a claim (archived) spread online that 70,000 Cambodian monks nominated the U.S. president for a Nobel Peace Prize.

The July 28, 2025, ceasefire ended the deadliest escalation of violence between Thailand and Cambodia since 2011. According to the United Nations, the conflict displaced more than 131,000 people in Thailand and more than 4,000 in Cambodia. The Associated Press reported on July 26 that at least 32 people had died.

Following the ceasefire, the claim about Cambodian monks nominating Trump for a Nobel Peace Prize gained popularity after Jesse Watters, a Fox News host, featured it on his show. Watters said, "70,000 monks just broke their vows of silence to nominate Trump for the Nobel."

The claim also circulated on X (archived). Snopes readers wrote in asking whether the claim was true.

However, claims about the Cambodian monks and Trump's Nobel Peace Prize nomination overstated the monks' involvement.

In an address on Aug. 10, Yon Seng Yeath, the chief monk of Wat Ounaloum, a monastery regarded as the headquarters of Cambodian Buddhism, said of Trump, "Today, 70,000 monks are wholeheartedly supportive of our Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet to nominate you for the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of your historic contribution in advancing world peace."

Hun Manet, not 70,000 Cambodian monks, nominated (archived) Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize on Aug. 7, 2025. Given the above, we rate this claim mostly false in recognition that Trump did receive a Cambodian Nobel Peace Prize nomination.

In his Aug. 7 nomination, which he posted on Facebook, Hun Manet wrote that Trump's "extraordinary statesmanship" had helped broker "an immediate and unconditional ceasefire between Cambodia and Thailand."

"This timely intervention, which averted a potentially devastating conflict, was vital in preventing great loss of lives and paved the way toward the restoration of peace between the two countries," Hun Manet wrote.

Monks endorsed Hun Manet's nomination

More than 2,500 monks marched in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh on Aug. 10, 2025, calling for a sustainable ceasefire deal between Cambodia and Thailand.

The march stopped briefly outside the U.S. embassy in Phnom Penh, where Yon Seng Yeath made the declaration of support for Hun Manet's nomination, according to local media.

Though there were not 70,000 monks present during the Aug. 10 march, the Cambodian Minister of Cults and Religious Affairs said in March 2025 that there were more than 70,000 Buddhist monks in the country, supporting Yon Seng Yeath's tally.

Cambodia's nomination of Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize followed nominations from Israel and Pakistan.

Trump previously told reporters that the Nobel Committee, the body responsible for awarding Nobel Prizes, would "never" give him the top prize. "I deserve it, but they will never give it to me," Trump said in the Oval Office on Feb. 4, 2025, while meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Snopes previously provided context for a claim that Buddhist monks thanked Trump for his role in ending the armed conflict between Thailand and Cambodia.