Why didn't Trump deserve the Nobel Peace Prize? Let me count the ways
I’ll admit to great relief that Donald Trump didn’t receive the Nobel Peace Prize, something for which he’d been shamelessly campaigning for months. I was firmly in the “anyone but Trump” camp but also heartened to see that the Nobel committee chose a worthy recipient, Maria Corina Machado of Venezuela.
Ms. Machado is everything that Trump isn’t, based on the criteria for which Nobel recipients are evaluated.
Machado was awarded the prize according to a Nobel press release for “her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela.” Trump tried to destroy the democratic rights of Americans by attempting to overturn the 2020 presidential election results and invalidate the voters’ constitutional right to elect their president.
Machado was recognized for “her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy.” Rather than facilitate a peaceful transfer of power when he lost the 2020 election, Trump refused to accept the results and incited a violent riot at the Capitol to attempt to halt congressional certification of the duly elected president.
According to the Nobel committee, Machado “has been a key, unifying figure in a political opposition that was once deeply divided.” Trump has been a sharply divisive figure. Within the Republican Party, anyone who didn’t agree with him was labeled a RINO, a traitor to the party, and effectively banished. Trump has characterized Democrats as the “enemy of the people,” and “the enemy within,” turning the parties against each other and deeply dividing the country.
As a founder of Súmate, an organization devoted to democratic development, Machado has stood up for free and fair elections for more than 20 years. Trump is doing everything possible to undermine America’s free and fair election process. He has encouraged gerrymandering to add more Republican-dominant districts in red states. He is attempting to skew elections in Republican’s favor, including opposing mail-in ballots, supporting paper ballots only, requiring proof of citizenship, and opposing voting-day registration.
The Nobel committee said, “We see the same trends globally: rule of law abused by those in control, free media silenced, critics imprisoned, and societies pushed towards authoritarian rule and militarization.”
The committee was not ignorant of the fact that under Trump, the US is part of this global trend: a president who consistently abuses the rule of law, undermines the free media, criminally indicts critics, asserts authoritarian power, and militarizes cities.
The Nobel press release continued, “When authoritarians seize power, it is crucial to recognize courageous defenders of freedom who rise and resist. Democracy depends on people who refuse to stay silent, … and who remind us that freedom must always be defended.” The Nobel committee was referring to people like Maria Corina Machado, who if an American, would not silently stand by and watch American democracy be destroyed.
It could not be lost on the Nobel committee that the person who was campaigning relentlessly in his egotistical quest for a Nobel was among the authoritarian leaders that the committee was condemning for threatening democracy worldwide. If there was ever an automatic disqualifier for the prize, that could be it.
Trump receiving a Nobel Peace Prize would have been a travesty. People don’t receive peace prizes who undermine their democracies and attempt to create autocratic rule. Maria Corina Machado received the Nobel Peace Prize for fighting courageously against people like Trump and defending Venezuelans’ right to democratic rule.
As to the case that Trump makes for his deserving a Nobel, it is based on his claim that he personally ended seven wars since he was reelected president. Like most of Trump’s claims, this one is a hodgepodge of lies, exaggerations and half-truths.
According to FactCheck.org, some of the conflicts are still ongoing, some agreements haven’t been ratified, and at least one conflict Trump played no role in. What success he did have was based on coercive threats of tariffs rather than diplomacy.
Trump is trying out the role of great international peacemaker to deflect from how he is attempting to unravel democracy at home and bend the judicial and legislative branches, cities, states, universities, and media to his will. The Nobel committee wasn’t the least fooled and awarded a person the peace prize who represents the greatest obstacle to the Donald Trumps of the world taking over.
Outside of everyone residing in the MAGA-world echo chamber, few in the country will lose sleep over Trump not winning the Nobel Peace Prize. I suspect millions will sleep much better.
- Tom Tyner is a freelance editorialist, satirist, political analyst, blogger, author and retired English instructor
