Maybe the members of that Nobel Peace Prize committee should be checking their mortgage application information or other invented prosecutable offenses for daring to choose a candidate for the annual prize not named Donald J. Trump. Maybe they will be declared part of an “Antifa” foreign terrorism group.
However disappointed Trump is that the Nobelists didn’t throw out their reviews of long-term contributions to peace, democracy and human rights to recognize Trump’s recent bullying path to an historic, if initial ceasefire in Gaza, the immediate read at the White House and among his supporters was Trump was snubbed for “political” reasons.
More likely, it was timing, and the incompleteness of an Israel-Hamas breakthrough that is still forming this weekend, to say little of how others might see a particularly bumpy Trump record on issues of democracy. Trump’s MAGA supporters are outraged, of course, just as his detractors were turning to ridicule.
Lost in the prize talk are the still fragile beginning of peace in Gaza with all the hard work yet to come.
But, as we all know, a peeved Trump translates quickly into a vengeful Trump whose resentments last a long while and flaunt all sorts of convention. So there were as many headlines about Norwegians bracing for retributive attacks in trade or other support as there was coverage about the actual winner — Maria Cortina Machado, the Venezuelan opposition leader who has campaigned long and hard for democratic rights, not for recognition by a Nobel Peace Prize panel.
Losing Sight
If Trump could get over his ego — he cannot — he might find real kinship with Machado, 58, who was barred from running for the Venezuelan presidency by Trump’s own sworn enemy Nicholas Maduro. Machado campaigns for transparent democracy, advocates for liberal economic reforms, including the privatization of state-owned enterprises such as Venezuela’s oil company. She also supports the creation of welfare programs aimed at aiding the country’s poorest.
Machado has remained in isolation as her senior advisers have been detained or forced to leave the country by Maduro and his supporters. Venezuelan social media was filled with rumors that government informers were monitoring reactions to the award to weed out opposition supporters.
As an added wrinkle, the Trump administration appears to be building a military confrontation with Venezuela’s autocratic leader, Nicolás Maduro, through the sinking of individual drug speedboats and threats against cartels that link Maduro with drug trafficking.
On his own behalf, Trump should be hailing the choice of an anti-Maduro prize winner. An adviser to Machado told The New York Times last month that leaders of her opposition movement have been speaking to the Trump administration about how to counter Maduro and crime organizations in Venezuela.
Secretary of State Mario Rubio had supported Machado as a candidate for the peace prize.
Trump, who is about to visit the Middle East for the expected release of hostages, has been openly lobbying for the Nobel recognition. And, if the regional peacemaking just starting holds, he may be a leading candidate next year. Of course, in Trump speak, the honor is already overdue, and the images of Palestinians streaming back northward or the joyful celebrations in Israel should have created an immediate new prize decision.
The Trump attention span runs in days at most.
From the reporting from Oslo, it seems that the act of lobbying for the prize itself was a factor in setting Trump’s name aside. Trump repeatedly takes credit for stopping “seven wars,” since January, often incorrectly or in overstatement both of effectiveness and his own role. The White House communications director Steven Cheung said, “The Nobel Committee proved they place politics over peace.”
New York Times columnist Tom Friedman offered a thoughtful piece suggesting the whole discussion was premature. Trump may well deserve a Nobel Peace Prize, he argued, if he follows through after the agreed-upon hostage for prisoners ceasefire deal to the far more difficult questions ahead. “If the implementation of all the stages of this peace plan rebuilds a pathway for Israeli-Palestinian peace, that would be worthy of a Nobel Peace Prize. Maybe even two,” said Friedman, who added perhaps that might prompt Trump to make peace in America as well.
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