It’s a distressful day for Donald Trump. After months of the US President claiming to be the most deserving contender for the Nobel Peace Prize, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has announced a “brave woman” as this year’s winner. Maria Corina Machado has won the Nobel for her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy, the Committee said.
There was no word on Trump. And rightfully so.
Trump is yet to comment on being skipped by the Nobel committee, but an angry rant is expected in all likelihood, especially after his repeated claims that he helped stop seven wars worldwide to emerge as a global peacemaker.
The White House echoed him and pushed what was nothing short of a campaign that screamed Trump’s praises day in and out. Hours earlier, it shared a photo showing Trump in a blue suit and yellow tie, walking down the White House corridors. ‘The Peace President’, read the caption.
Nobel Campaign From Oval
Trump claimed his Oval Office was the center of all peace agreements across the world for months. Even before taking office in January, he had started pushing for negotiations to end the Russia-Ukraine war and the Israel-Hamas conflict. Though an end to the conflicts is still not in sight.
Besides, he also claimed credit for stopping the India-Pakistan war in May. Not once, not twice, but on every occasion that he found to portray himself as the ‘Modern Day Buddha’. The claims were turned down by India. New Delhi’s stand is that the hostilities stopped after Pakistani commanders pleaded with their Indian counterparts for a ceasefire, unable to afford any more losses on their side.
Debt-ridden Pakistan, in its quest to court Trump, had backed him for the Nobel.
4 Ex-Presidents Won Nobel
At least four former US presidents have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in the past, including Theodore Roosevelt (1906), Woodrow Wilson (1919), and Jimmy Carter (2002). Barack Obama won it within a year of his presidency, in 2009, for his advocacy for nuclear disarmament and efforts to strengthen international diplomacy.
“He got it for doing nothing,” Trump had lashed out hours before this year’s prize was announced. “Obama got a prize – he didn’t even know what – he got elected, and they gave it to Obama for doing absolutely nothing but destroying our country,” he said.