U.S. President Donald Trump is "hurting his chances" of winning the Nobel Peace Prize he has long coveted, former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta told Newsweek .

Trump has for years said he feels he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize, one of the world's best-known accolades. The Republican has at once styled himself a "peacemaker-in-chief," tasked with closing deals to end conflicts across the globe, while authorizing a U.S. military buildup in the southern Caribbean and multiple lethal strikes on alleged drug boats in international waters this month. Observers raised serious questions about the legality of the missile strikes.

"I think that President Trump does care about peace," said Panetta, who served as former President Barack Obama 's Secretary of Defense from 2011 to 2013

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