President Donald Trump's extraordinary public lobbying campaign for a Nobel Peace Prize hasn't proven very convincing. A Washington Post-Ipsos poll last month showed even about half of Republicans said Trump didn't deserve one. Just 22% of Americans overall said that he did, writes CNN.
But on Wednesday a Trump Nobel suddenly became more plausible with the announcement of a phase-one ceasefire deal in Gaza. Much remains to be ironed out, and time will tell how successful it is. The news also didn't seem to arrive in time for this year's prize announcement, which happens to be Friday.
But even some nonpartisan foreign policy experts and Trump critics are starting to take the possibility more seriously, albeit for next year.
"If the peace plan moves forward, Mr. Trump may have as legitimate a claim to that Nobel as the four American presidents who have won the peace prize in the past," longtime New York Times national security reporter David Sanger wrote, "though with less bombast and lobbying."
Democratic Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, meanwhile, said Thursday that he would lead the effort to give Trump a Nobel if Trump ended the wars in both Gaza and Ukraine.
Even as all that was happening, though, we got a series of reminders that Trump's quest for a Nobel suffers from a number of deficits -- of his own making.
Most notably, his legally and factually dubious efforts to crack down on the opposition in the United States and to launch extraordinary strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean might dissuade the people who judge this kind of thing from honoring him for his contributions to peace.
Imagine Trump competing for a Nobel Prize even as his own country devolves into a heavy-handed deployment of the military on US soil and as Trump launches what many experts regard as extrajudicial killings that could amount to war crimes. -- CNN
© 2025 Rediff.com - Investor Information - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances
