President Donald Trump has made no secret that he is campaigning for the Nobel Peace Prize. He makes his case with the spurious assertion that he has ended seven wars (hoping the Nobel committee will overlook Gaza and Ukraine).
Of course, Trump has announced this week a peace plan for Gaza which is based on reasonable terms. But Hamas isn’t going to relinquish its influence in Gaza even if it pays lip service to Trump’s plan. At this writing (Oct. 2), Hamas has yet to voice approval or disapproval. No doubt, Trump is counting on this peace plan to build a case for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Let me make this perfectly clear: Barack Obama did nothing to merit the Nobel Peace Prize early in his first term as president. He merely put himself in the good graces of the committee when he spoke in Cairo in early 2009 when he put the blame on the United States for the failure(s) of the Third World. Not since John F. Kennedy was a U.S. president so popular worldwide. The difference was (and is) that whereas Kennedy’s popularity was rooted in goodwill, Obama’s popularity around the world was (and is) in an anti-American context.
But unworthy as Obama may have been of the Nobel Peace Prize, this does not enhance the case for Trump. Forget the disingenuous claims of ending seven wars. Trump’s case for a Nobel Peace Prize really falls on its face with his friendships with Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and Vladimir Putin of Russia. (Putin is currently out of favor with Trump but that is liable to change and does not erase the friendship Trump had cultivated for so long.)
Then there is Trump’s antagonism toward the rest of the free world made up of our closest allies. Trump has launched a trade war with the world. And he trashed the United Nations in his recent speech to that very body. Trump poses a threat to the post WWII institutions which have made the nation and the world prosper.
On the other hand, maybe what makes for the Nobel Peace Prize is not what makes for an effective president. Trump courts the oppressive sheikdom of the Middle East every bit as much as Obama. Unfortunately, it’s this type of so-called diplomacy which endears itself to the Nobel committee.
Rather than campaign for the Nobel Peace Prize, Trump should concentrate on the presidency. In all fairness, the peace plan for the Middle East Trump had announced this past week is a step in the right direction. But Hamas will never accept it. And if it does, it will never abide by it. And President Trump is really kidding himself when he suggests Iran might even one day be a signatory to his peace plan.
As for the Nobel Peace Prize, Trump is not polite enough. That’s not an indictment. It’s only the truth. Eloquence is a desirable element to attain the Nobel Peace Prize. Eloquence is also a trait Trump very much lacks. If one desires the Nobel Peace Prize, bellowing about Canada, Europe, Japan, and the United Nations is not the path.
Invective is welcome in the ranks of MAGA but not in the Nobel bureaucracy. By the way, just as invective is not the way to a Nobel Peace Prize, it’s also not the way to demonstrate leadership necessary to the presidency.
John O’Neill is an Allen Park free-lance writer and a graduate of Wayne State University.
