A Nobel Peace Prize for Donald J. Trump?
Already, Republicans in Congress are cobbling together the required application to be presented to the Nobel Prize Committee. They cite the upcoming talks between Trump and North Korean leader, Kim Un-jong, which may result in the long-awaited end to the Korean War and possibly to the de-nuclearization and re-unification of the peninsula, if our accidental president can stop tweeting long enough to make it happen. Methinks the GOP optimism is extraordinary, and misplaced.
Four American presidents have so far been awarded the highly-coveted Nobel Peace Prize. Theodore Roosevelt won it in 1905 for brokering a peace treaty to end the Russo-Japanese War; he did not, however, accept it until he left office, because he didn’t think it was appropriate for a sitting president to do so. Woodrow Wilson was awarded it in 1919 for his efforts to establish the League of Nations in the wake of the ruinous World War I; America never joined the League because, ironically, Wilson couldn’t convince Congressional Republicans to vote for membership.
Jimmy Carter received it in 2002 for his untiring efforts to finding peaceful solutions to international conflicts, advancing democracy and human rights throughout the world, and promoting economic and social development. He is the only one of the four to have been given the Prize post-presidency. Finally, Barack Obama was named in 2009 for strengthening international diplomacy and co-operation and promoting nuclear non-proliferation; yet, a great deal of controversy surrounded his award, because there were few specifics cited to support his nomination.
As far as I have been able to determine, none of these gentlemen was a pathological liar, inveterate braggart, paranoia-filled neurotic, or narcissist. Rather, all seemed to have been statesmen according to the dictates of their times in office.
The current occupant of the White House is hardly a statesman. He rants and raves both publicly and privately. He vents his spleen through Twitter endlessly. He creates alternate facts on the spur of the moment and repeats them even after they have been proven to be false. He makes promises he doesn’t intend to keep. He believes that only he can solve the world’s problems. He insults friend and foe alike whenever it suits him. He seeks to withdraw from treaties not made by him and labels any treaty made by any of his predecessors as “bad,” “horrible,” or “disastrous.” He attempts to dictate to other world leaders and ignores their rightful protests. Worse than all that (!), he is obsessed with illegal immigrants whom he labels as “animals,” “rapists,” “murderers,” “gang-bangers,” and “drug dealers”; and he wants to build a wall around America so that no one can get in unless he personally authorizes admittance.
As president, he has ignored the history of the United States, if he ever knew it to begin with. He has dismissed the social contract between the governed and the government forged in 1787 and attempted to rule by personal fiat. He has filled his Cabinet and his White House staff with sycophants who have no expertise for their offices beyond their willingness to please him at every turn. He has reveled in the adulation of his followers, a shrinking number, and threatened to jail his detractors. And he has been fighting three separate wars, two inherited from his predecessors and one of his own making, with abandonment.
If there is a peace treaty between North Korea and South Korea, if there is a de-nuclearization of the peninsula, if there is a re-unification of this last bastion of the 20th Century’s Cold War, they will come about because they are what the Koreans want and not because some American president wants it in order to boast about his political prowess.
A Nobel Peace Prize for Donald J. Trump?
I’d sooner give it to Kim Jong-un, who made the first overture, any day of the week.
Just a thought.