Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump is reportedly in the running to receive the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize.
Despite the billionaire's controversial call to ban all Muslims from entering the United States, which drew international backlash, Trump earned the nomination for the award because of his tough stance on terrorism and other security threats, according to Nobel watcher Kristian Berg Harpviken, director of the Peace Research Institute of Oslo.
Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump speaks at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum Jan. 2 in Biloxi, Mississippi. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Harpviken said the nominating letter he received outlined why Trump deserved the award. Supporters wrote that the real estate mogul deserved the prize because of "his vigorous peace through strength ideology, used as a threat weapon of deterrence against radical Islam, ISIS, nuclear Iran and Communist China," according to the Agence France-Presse.
Thousands of people around the world are allowed to make nominations for the award, including parliamentary ministers, government members, former prize winners and some university professors. The Nobel Institute accepts all valid nominations, which must be submitted by Feb. 1, but the names of nominees remain confidential.
Other potential nominees for the prestigious prize include German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who was Time's person of the year in 2015, and Pope Francis, according to the AFP.
The 2015 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to four Tunisian groups who led the country's transition to democracy.
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