Donald Trump: News billionaire is 'nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize' sparks ridicule

Twitter reacts with disbelief over reports of his nomination

Donald Trump makes a face as he and his wife Melania and members of their family leave the stage at his caucus night rally in Des Moines, Iowa (Reuters)

Donald Trump has reportedly been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize and no-one, it seems, can cope.

On Tuesday, it emerged that Trump’s name made it onto a list of nominees for the Nobel Peace Prize alongside other figures tipped for the same nomination, such as Pope Francis and a campaigner for Isis rape survivors.

The billionaire's name was submitted by an anonymous US politician, according to Kristian Berg Harpviken, a Nobel prize ‘watcher’ and director of Oslo’s Peace Research Institute.

His apparent nomination comes after he made a series of increasingly divisive pledges during his campaign for the Republican nomination, such as banning all Muslims from entering the US and suggesting Syrian refugees could be a fifth column sent by Isis.

In light of his more inflammatory comments, the general consensus was that his nomination for his "vigorous peace through strength ideology" must be a joke. When it finally sank in that this news was not satire, incredulity was quickly replaced by shock.

It may be of some comfort to know that thousands of people are eligible to submit nominations for the Peace Prize. The Norwegian Nobel committee typically receives more than 200 nominations annually.