Opinion: Nobel Peace Prize for Donald Trump? Then give it to him

The Germans are, unusually these days, very united on one issue. Donald Trump Under no circumstances should he receive the Nobel Peace Prize in 2025. 96 percent of Germans reject such an award to him, A recent Forsa survey for the staronly a few AfD supporters considered the American worthy of the award.

The Germans are right (and that the survey took place before the apparent ceasefire breakthrough brokered by Trump Gaza carried out does not change this). You can’t imagine a more unsuitable candidate for perhaps the most valuable award on the planet than the multiple bankrupt from Queens.

He is corrupt, he has a criminal record, he is vengeful, he has led first the USA and then the world into ever deeper trench warfare, even if he has not yet officially started a war. Even whether Trump actually brought about a peace agreement remains highly questionable. The will of prize founder Alfred Nobel actually stipulates “lasting peace” as the basis for an honor. In the seven war endings that Trump claims to be responsible for, at least his role is unclear. His role in the Gaza conflict can be recognized, but whether peace will really come there is still completely uncertain.

And yet I find myself thinking: Then just give him the prize! It no longer really matters that a moral institution of the free world – the Nobel Peace Prize – would be battered.

Firstly, such criteria have already slipped in the Trump era. After all, according to all moral, political and social criteria, this man should not be the US President and therefore the most powerful person on the planet. And what’s more: the Oslo Committee had already made awards that were difficult to understand. Honoring Henry Kissinger, a prince of diplomatic darkness, in 1973 actually meant that political irony was dead, was a bon mot at the time. And Barack Obama received the award before he could do anything as president, his honor was simply a bet on the future.

This is at Obama unfortunately it didn’t work. The price was more of a burden for him; it made it easier for his opponents to discredit him as a “showman”. In hindsight, Obama should have rejected it.

Trump would of course be overjoyed to be able to call himself a Nobel Peace Prize winner; in his opinion, no one deserves it like he does. And who knows, maybe the fulfillment of his heart’s desire will have a positive effect – even if the US President could then feel obliged to remain committed to the (certainly extremely arduous) search for peace in Gaza once the first headlines are over. Entrepreneurs and politicians from all over the world are currently outdoing each other in (extremely embarrassing) flattery for Trump in order to make him more merciful. Then why not dare and endure this embarrassing award? Things can hardly get any worse.