President Donald Trump has not only secured a ceasefire in the brutal war between Israel and Hamas that has raged almost nonstop since Hamas’s horrific attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, but he and his administration also secured an agreement that, in its first phase, will return the 20 living hostages held in Gaza (and the bodies of those who did not survive captivity under Hamas) to their families.
If Trump were a Democrat, this achievement, let alone the additional elements of the proposed peace plan, would not only have sparked celebration and adulation across the world but also triggered waves of awards and honors, namely the Nobel Peace Prize.
And yet, on Friday, the 2025 prize was awarded to Maria Corina Machado, the opposition leader in Venezuela, dubbed by the committee as “one of the most extraordinary examples of civilian courage in Latin America in recent times.”
Don’t get me wrong: Machado is certainly an important figure in Venezuelan politics and one of many pro-democracy figures worldwide. But the notion that she, more than Trump, exemplifies the pursuit of peace that this increasingly laughable prize supposedly represents? Sorry, it’s patently absurd, and it seems that even Machado may understand this fact, given that she dedicated the prize to Trump for “his decisive support of our cause.”
The Nobel Peace Prize is one of five awards established by the will of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish chemist, industrialist, antisemite, and, most ironically of all, armaments manufacturer, as well as the inventor of dynamite.
According to Nobel’s will, the prize is to be awarded “to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, the abolition or reduction of standing armies, and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.”
Now, given recent recipients of this prize, it’s become fairly obvious that the Nobel committee has long since forgotten the fundamental purpose of the award. The fact that winners include Yasser Arafat, a terrorist in a suit, stands as the most obvious absurdity. Former President Barack Obama became the fourth president to receive the award in 2009, just 30 minutes after being sworn into office, for his “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.”
Translation: for no reason whatsoever, unless you count the thousands of people killed by Obama’s drone war, including hundreds of civilians.
Sure, Trump talks a big game when it comes to his own achievements, but that doesn’t discount the fact that peace (however temporary) in the Middle East is a legitimately phenomenal achievement that remains unrecognized by a global elite who drooled over drone-striking Obama and intifada-driving Arafat and yet snubbed Trump, despite him having made a veritable habit of actually ending wars.
WHAT THE TIMELINE OF THE GAZA PEACE DEAL LOOKS LIKE
Let’s not forget: This ceasefire and possible peace plan build upon Trump’s Abraham Accords policy, which revolutionized the path to peace in the Middle East by creating a plan that doesn’t involve bending over backward for terrorists. The Nobel committee may argue that Trump was snubbed this year because nominations closed just weeks into his administration. Yet, if it had been Obama who delivered the Abraham Accords, not only would he have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize again, but the committee would probably have renamed the entire prize after him.
It’s undeniable that if the Nobel committee gave a damn about peace, Trump would have received the Nobel Peace Prize. The fact that committee members chose a comparatively obscure politician in South America proves that their true goal, as White House communications director Steven Cheung put it, is “politics over peace.”
Ian Haworth is a syndicated columnist. Follow him on X (@ighaworth) or Substack.