Donald Trump went to embarrassing lengths in his campaign for a Nobel Peace Prize — to no avail. Soon after, Gianni Infantino, who leads FIFA, soccer’s global governing body, got to work trying to make his friend in the White House feel better.
In fact, Infantino directed the international organization to create its own honor, called the “FIFA Peace Prize — Football Unites the World.” The New York Times reported that the effort “was so hastily arranged that it surprised several of the body’s most senior officials, including board members and vice presidents, according to four soccer executives briefed on the events.”
Take a wild guess who won the award.
That Trump put the medal around his own neck added an unintentionally amusing — and oddly apt — twist on the ceremony.
The obvious problem with these developments is that Trump doesn’t deserve a peace prize. The president is, after all, embroiled in an ongoing controversy surrounding his administration’s alleged war crimes, which dovetails with a series of related incidents that include Republicans’ threats targeting Latin American countries and Nigeria, preemptive military strikes on targets in Iran, and a bombing campaign in Yemen.
In October, Trump declared, “I think we’re just gonna kill people that are bringing drugs into our country, OK? We are going to kill them, you know? They are going to be, like, dead.”
So “peace prize” is hardly the first phrase that comes to mind when thinking about the president’s international vision.
But there are other problems just below the surface of this new peace prize. What we have here is an example of a foreign businessman trying to curry favor with the White House, concocting a dubious prize that he knows Trump will appreciate. Infantino isn’t alone. Axios recently reported that officials in Switzerland persuaded Trump to lower tariff rates by deploying a delegation of industry tycoons to the White House bearing gifts, including “a special Rolex desktop clock, a 1-kilogram personalized gold bar, and loads of flattery.” The report added, “Trump loves such pampering, and the word’s out among nations and companies seeking his favor. Tributes fit for a king — especially gold — catch his eyes and his heart.” (The Swiss gold bar, which sounds a bit similar to the gift that helped land former Sen. Bob Menendez in prison, was stamped with “45” and “47” in homage to Trump’s presidential terms.) And now FIFA has rewarded the American president with a gold honor of its own. How the global governing body stands to benefit from placating Trump remains to be seen, but under the circumstances, FIFA can take comfort in knowing its new, hastily arranged and entirely unwarranted “peace” prize likely won’t be soon forgotten by the White House.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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