I agree with South Korean President Moon Jae-in: if anyone deserves the Nobel prize for bringing about peace between North and South Korea it’s Donald Trump.
In the unlikely event that the Nobel prize committee ever agrees, I can think of two very tempting reasons why the Donald should accept.
The first – which I’m sure must appeal to a man of Trump’s vanity – is: “Why not? I deserve it.” And it’s true, he does.
Do you remember all those articles that appeared in the MSM after Trump got elected, expertly explaining why his lack of diplomacy, his brashness, his ignorance, his brinkmanship, his naivety were the exact opposite of what were needed to bring a crazy like Kim Jong-un to the negotiating table?
When Trump threatened to destroy North Korea in his first speech to the United Nations and called Kim Jong-un “Rocket Man”, the usual suspects were appalled.
Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom, who was observed crossing her arms, told the BBC: “It was the wrong speech, at the wrong time, to the wrong audience.”
[Wallstrom, by the way, belongs to the Total Surrender to the Enemy school of international diplomacy. When a Swedish female government delegation all put on hijabs during a visit to Iran, Wallstrom praised this as the equivalent of wearing a kippah in a synagogue]
But Trump’s “Speak noisily and carry a big stick” policy has been vindicated and his critics proved wrong. Among those critics, you can be sure, will be the entirety of the Nobel prize committee. It would be worth going to collect the prize, almost, just to see the expressions on their faces.
And the second reason why Donald Trump might want to accept a Nobel prize is equally obvious: the trolling!
As the King, nay, the God Emperor of all Trolls, Trump understands that if there’s one thing even more enjoyable than winning it’s the exquisite pleasure of watching your enemies losing.
Right now – and it’s going to get a lot worse, believe me – there an awful lot of “experts” with egg on their face over Donald Trump. They said he wasn’t fit to be president; they said he was a joke; they said he’d never win; they said he was going to be a disaster.
Trump said “Hold my beer…” And – among many other achievements – did something so extraordinary that if Obama had managed it the world’s media wouldn’t have stopped talking about it for months, years even. He brought peace to arguably the world’s most fragile trouble spot.
So, yes, of course it would be worth accepting the prize for that reason too: for the misery it would cause to all the right people – to Democrats and other leftists; to NeverTrumpers and all those other “sophisticated” conservatives who’ve sought to dissociate themselves from Trump because, apparently, he’s not a proper conservative; for the reluctant headlines their newspapers would have to write and for the reluctant lead features in their TV news bulletins.
Still, though, despite all this I think Trump should turn down the Nobel Peace prize. Quite simply, it is damaged goods. No, worse than that, it is tainted beyond all redemption.
There was a time, long, long ago, when the Nobel prize went to the greatest and the best. Recipients of its various versions (for literature, economics, the sciences, and so on) included characters as diverse as Winston Churchill, Marie Curie, Teddy Roosevelt, Milton Friedman.
Today, though, it’s so fully Social Justice Warrior converged it’s all but impossible to imagine it going to a recipient who wasn’t impeccably left-wing.
What’s more the bar for those who do possess the right politically correct politics is so low that you have to do almost nothing to win it.
In the case of Barack Obama literally nothing. He won the 2009 Peace Prize simply for being himself, not for anything he’d actually done.
The swamp Donald Trump has promised to drain extends far, far beyond DC.
The Nobel Prize is part of that swamp and, tempting though it must be too accept its baubles, Trump must not grant it the dignity of gracing it with his presence.
No question, Donald Trump is worthy of the Nobel peace prize. But the Nobel peace prize is not worthy of the Donald.
James Delingpole is a writer, journalist, and columnist. He is the executive editor at Breitbart London Follow him on Twitter: @JamesDelingpole.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.