A prize that is now reduced to a joke

The world is aware of Donald Trump's fascination for the Nobel peace prize.

- HARSHA KAKAR

After all, the President he replaced at the White House in his first tenure, Barack Obama, was awarded one for 'extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples,' despite continuing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq (inherited from his predecessor) and launching military interventions in Libya and against ISIL in Iraq and Syria, alongside increased drone strikes including in Pakistan.

Trump recently stated, "They should give me the Nobel Prize for Rwanda and if you look, the Congo, or you could say Serbia, Kosovo, you could say a lot of them. The big one is India and Pakistan. I should have gotten it four or five times." His desperation for the award has made him repeat his lies of being involved in pushing the ceasefire between India and Pakistan, ignoring the public denial by the Indian PM in a tele-conversation with him.

His yearning for the award was also visible in a social media post on his Truth Social platform on 20 June where, in a single post, he mentioned the award six times. He has even stated, "It's too bad. I deserve it, but they will never give it to me." He tweeted his anger at being ignored, while Obama was awarded, "They gave one to Obama immediately upon his ascent to the presidency, and he had no idea why he got it... That was the only thing I agreed with him on."

What has hurt him is his inability to conclude the Russo-Ukraine conflict, an act which could have made him a frontrunner for the award.

Vladimir Putin, aware of his fascination for the Nobel, has been playing him along. Trump realized this after considerable time and decided to rearm Ukraine through NATO, and also consider secondary sanctions on Russia. He has currently stopped talking of mediating.