Wait, Did Gavin Newsom Really Win the Nobel Peace Prize? Fact-Checking the Claim

To win the Nobel Peace Prize, you have to be one heck of a person (or group of people) who has accomplished things the average person can’t even fathom, like Nihon Hidankyo, the group of atomic bomb survivors who took home the award in 2024, or Narges Mohammadi who fought tirelessly against the oppression of women in Iran and received the award in 2023.

So when news started circulating online that California Governor Gavin Newsom received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2025, people were a little surprised, not because he hasn’t achieved notable things in his political career, but because his track record doesn’t quite line up with groups like Nihon Hidankyo, who survived the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We’re here to fact-check whether Newsom actually received the award and trace where the first reports suggesting he did came from.

Gavin Newsom has not won the Nobel Peace Prize as of this writing, despite some claims circulating online that he took home the award in 2025. For starters, when the rumor began, the Nobel Peace Prize for 2025 hadn’t even been announced, as the winner is scheduled to be revealed on Oct. 10, 2025. The source of the claim appears to be a satirical post by comedian Andy Borowitz in his column The Borowitz Report.

In his post, titled “Trump Explodes With Rage after Gavin Newsom Wins Nobel Peace Prize” and shared on Oct. 7, Borowitz wrote not only that Newsom had won the award but also fabricated an alleged statement from the committee. According to Borowitz, the committee praised Newsom for “demonstrating his dedication to the principle of peace by preventing an armed conflict between California and Oregon.”

The article continued, “Though the committee did not bestow its prize on Trump, it did recognize him with a laser-printed ‘certificate of participation.’” Borowitz also claimed the committee stated, “Donald Trump’s entry gave us many hours of welcome laughter.” In the comments, one reader wrote, “You know we’re in trouble when satire sounds like real news! Thanks for lightening up my mood this morning, Andy,” to which Borowitz liked the comment.

The post was clearly intended as satire, poking fun at Donald Trump’s nomination while playfully positioning Newsom as the winner amid their ongoing conflicts. His suggestion that Trump’s nomination made the committee laugh was just another jab at the president, who has hinted he’d like to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, especially considering Barack Obama was awarded it in 2009.

While the claim that Newsom won the Nobel Peace Prize is completely false, Trump was reportedly nominated for the 2025 award by Rep. Claudia Tenney, R-New York, according to USA Today. She submitted her nominees for the president, as well as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, ahead of the deadline. That doesn’t mean Trump will actually win, but yes, he was officially nominated, so he can at least claim bragging rights for the nomination.