This year’s Nobel peace prize was awarded to Venezuelan opposition figure María Corina Machado and Trump will be mad that he did not get it.
The peace prize was tarnished when it was awarded to the war criminal Henry Kissinger and it did not redeem itself when it gave the prize to Barack Obama who had done nothing to deserve it. But Trump clearly feels that he too deserves it and has been campaigning hard for it.
While Trump has played down his chances to win the prize, he has been active behind the scenes, phoning Jens Stoltenberg, Norway’s finance minister, in Oslo this summer to tell him he wanted to discuss the “Nobel peace prize … and tariffs”. He regularly brings up the award; usually as he makes the tenuous claim to have ended six or seven wars since his return to the White House.
“If I were named Obama, I would have had the Nobel prize given to me in 10 seconds,” Trump said last year during the presidential race.
The obsession has become a running joke among foreign diplomats seeking to lobby their interests, including at a regular breakfast among European ambassadors where a common topic is how to keep Trump engaged in the support of Ukraine.
“Anytime he is talking about solving seven wars, he is really sending a message: give me the Nobel,” said one senior European diplomat based in Washington.
…Trump’s new push for a peace deal to end the [Gaza] war kicked into gear during last month’s UN general assembly, where he met with Arab leaders and then approved a 20-point peace plan that he announced during a White House summit with Benjamin Netanyahu in late September.
The timeline for the award has played an active role in trying to reach a deal this week, as officials have regularly said they believed a peace deal would be ready by Friday – the same day as the Nobel committee announces its choice.
What was worse for him is the statement accompanying the prize could be interpreted as a dig at him.
In its announcement, the Norwegian committee attacked the growing wave of authoritarianism in Venezuela and in countries around the world. The sentiment was quickly seized upon by Trump’s critics, who saw it as a not-too-subtle dig at the US president’s use of the military in American cities and pressure on his political enemies at home.
“When authoritarians seize power, it is crucial to recognise courageous defenders of freedom who rise and resist,” the committee wrote. “Democracy depends on people who refuse to stay silent, who dare to step forward despite grave risk, and who remind us that freedom must never be taken for granted, but must always be defended – with words, with courage and with determination.”
Christopher Sabatini, a senior fellow for Latin America at the Chatham House thinktank, suspected Trump would be “peeved” by the decision.
“He had lobbied shamelessly for this peace prize, even exaggerating his contribution to peace globally. He has mobilized significant [military] resources at great political cost to him, quite frankly, off the coast of Venezuela. And then the thing he most coveted gets snatched away from him by the person he is supposedly defending. I can’t see how this will sit well for a person who wears personal grievance on his sleeve.”
I would not be at all surprised if Trump decides to slap high tariffs on Norway in retaliation. Since he views tariffs as the solution to all his problems. Just today he threatened to impose ‘massive’ tariffs again on China.
Donald Trump has threatened to impose “massive” US tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of “very hostile” moves to restrict exports of rare earths needed for American industry.
Wall Street fell sharply after the US president reignited public tensions with the Chinese government, and raised the prospect of another trade war between the world’s two largest economies.
…A planned meeting between Trump and Xi Jinping in South Korea later this month may no longer happen, Trump suggested, saying “there seems to be no reason” to meet with the Chinese president.
And so it goes.
Just to give him a stroke, they should give it to Obama again!
Instead they gave it to someone who is a huge supporter of Israel, called Trump “courageous” and “visionary” and praised his murder of people via drone strike in international waters, and then immediately dedicated it to him in her first statement after receiving it.
The Nobel committee is a complete joke
Sure, why not. The first time, Obama got it for not being Bush. Makes sense that he should get it again for not being Trump.
Trump getting a stroke would just be the cherry on top.
A big, red, juicy cherry.
Unfortunately, she has gone and dedicated her prize to Trump. This definitely makes me question if she actually deserves the award. (If what Hex says in addition to this is true, then she probably does not.) Best case scenario, I think, is she is trying to manipulate Trump’s fragile ego to obtain support from him and doesn’t truly mean it.
@4 Leo Buzalsky — Either way, a definite taint on the prize, as if the morals of Mister Dynamite himself weren’t enough.
@2 Hex
My first impression when I read the news was that the Nobel Committee is putting its thumb on the scale in favor of Washington’s planned regime change in Venezuela, and presumably also in favor of the death and destruction that will follow.
I agree that the Peace Prize is a complete joke. The Physics, Chemistry, and Medicine prizes seem to be the only ones that matter at this point.
Marco Rubio and several other Republicans were among those who recommended Machado for the prize, so I don’t expect too much tossing of ketchup, and it also explains why Machado dedicated it to Trump.
How did slap become the verb of choice when tariffs are the subject?
Trump should have been given the IgNobel Peace prize for ending the war in Ukraine in 24 hours. Also the IgNobel of Economics for showing what high trariffs do to global economy. And Medicine for curing COVID. And… every prize. And a special one for winning all IgNobels in the same year.
I dont know -- He did finally get a ceasefire . If he does succeed in stopping Russia without giving them everything they want he might even deserve the peace prize.
Take the first four words of the title of this post -- you could put one up with that title at least once a week, every week.
@9 -- physics could be UV light killing COVID?
Long-form critique of Machado, even before she dedicated the prize to Trump.
Lassi Hippeläinen
You clearly haven’t read anything about the Ig Nobel prizes, the idea is “honor achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think.” with the aim of increasing the public understanding of science. There is no way Trump would ever qualify.
@Jazzlet, 13: I do see and somewhat agree with your point, but…
Practically everything Trump does first make me laugh, then make me think. Mainly, it makes me think “seriously, how has nobody successfully shot this fucker yet?”
@ ^
“Assassination is a funny joke” tells us more about you in fewer words than hundreds of comments of your blather.
Oh go to bed, Silentbob, Trump and his own people made his “assassination attempt” into cheesy reality-TV, so there’s no point in insisting the rest of us still have to be all polite and tactful about it.