A 9 October 2025 Washington Post (WaPo) article had this headline: “Trump wants a Nobel Prize. He’ll learn Friday if his campaign paid off” (https://www.washingtonpost.com//politics/2025/10/09/trump-nobel-prize-friday/) and stated: “President Donald Trump’s long quest for a Nobel Peace Prize has sparked an unusual global scramble.… Of all the golden glories that Donald Trump has accumulated — the statues, sneakers, even a golden pager — one gleaming medallion has eluded the 79-year-old president: the Nobel Peace Prize.“
This piece was followed by this WaPo article “Donald Trump and peace in the Mideast” (https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/10/09/gaza-israel-hamas-peace-plan-trump/) containing this passage: “if the deal holds, Trump can legitimately bolster his claim to be a peacemaker worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize.”
Finally, the suspense was broken on 10 October when the WaPo published this article “María Corina Machado, Venezuelan opposition leader, wins Nobel Peace Prize” (https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/10/10/maria-machado-nobel-peace-prize-venezuela/) revealing that Trump didn’t win and said: “The prize honored Machado, who is in hiding, for keeping ‘the flame of democracy burning,’ but the White House accused the Nobel jury of “placing politics over peace.” The article went on to say: “… the Venezuelan opposition leader has become a symbol of democratic resistance against an increasingly authoritarian regime, even as she has been forced into hiding and barred from holding public office.”
Regardless, what I still don’t understand is why anyone, especially President Donald J. Trump, would even want the Peace Prize after the way the Norwegian Nobel Committee cheapened it by turning it into a “participation trophy” with their 2009 award.
On 9 October 2009 after a mere 263 days in office, the Nobel Committee announced the award of their “prestigious” Peace Prize to President Obama, citing his promotion of nuclear nonproliferation and a "new climate" in international relations especially in reaching out to the Muslim world. In a USA Today/Gallup Poll conducted 16-19 October, 61% of American adults polled responded that they thought Obama did not deserve to win the prize.
WaPo columnist Michael Gerson wrote at the time that the committee members "have forfeited any claim to seriousness. Peace—the kind of peace that keeps people from being killed and oppressed—is an achievement, not a sentiment. ... Intending to honor Obama, the committee has actually embarrassed him."
The WaPo news analyst Dan Balz wrote: "Even among his supporters there was a sense of surprise and even shock on Friday [the day of the announcement], a belief that the award was premature, a disservice and a potential liability."
A WaPo editorial began, "’It's an odd Nobel Peace Prize that almost makes you embarrassed for the honoree’, and compared the Nobel Committee's statement that Obama had "created a new climate in international politics" to a recent satirical skit on television.”
Finally,
this 11 October WaPo article after the winner was announced:
“For U.S. presidents, Nobel Peace Prize long
fraught with politics“
(https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/10/11/trump-nobel-peace-prize-presidents/) Said:
“Trump and his allies campaigned for an
award that has frequently been used to send a message as well as bestow an
honor.” and included this “In 2009,
Barack Obama won it only months into his presidency, but the prize — which
cited his ‘vision’ and ‘extraordinary efforts’ — was more a mark of aspiration
than achievement by the first Black president in U.S. history. When late-night
host Stephen Colbert asked Obama what he had actually done at that point to
earn it, and the president deadpanned: ‘To be honest, I still don’t know.’”
When the
WaPo is speaking this disparagingly about an award, even one like the ONCE
prestigious Nobel Peace Prize, then it really has become “No Big Deal” except
for maybe the $1.2 Million and trophy/paperweight that goes with winning.
