What if the Nobel Committee just gave Trump a Peace Prize?

There would be conditions—such as actually imposing peace.

President Trump wants a Nobel Peace Prize. He certainly doesn’t deserve one, given that he’s needlessly stoking warfare in his own country. But let’s think like a dealmaker for a moment and take a Trumpian approach to the matter.

What if the Nobel committee in Oslo, Norway, told Trump, you know, we’ve given it a lot of thought, and maybe we will give you a Peace Prize after all. You’d finally measure up to Barack Obama.

But it wouldn’t be a gift. It would come with conditions, like any good deal. In the spirit of the Nobel, here’s a starter list:

• Cease all immigration raids in the United States of America.

• Relinquish all claims to Greenland and never speak of it again.

• Strengthen the NATO alliance.

• Provide maximum US aid to Ukraine in its war with Russia, until Russia leaves.

• Now that you’ve taken over Venezuela, establish a process to let the democratically elected opposition leaders take power.

• Express overt support for the independence of Taiwan and commit to defending it against any Chinese aggression.

You wouldn’t want to give Trump the prize based only on his promise to abide by the deal. You’d want proof. So you wouldn’t give him the prize at first. You’d set forth the conditions necessary for him to get his prize.

What if the Nobel Committee used its Peace Prize to make Trump more peaceable?

There’d probably be a negotiation over how long Trump would have to abide by the conditions. Two years would be a good starting point. If he upheld his end of the bargain, he’d get the prize early in 2028, his final year as president. That wouldn’t leave much time for Trump to backslide.

Wouldn’t it cheapen the Nobel Peace Prize to award it in such a transactional fashion? Yes and no. The prize is obviously meant to recognize achievement after the fact, not bring about any specific change. But think about that Obama award, which he won in 2009, the first year of his presidency, before he had barely done anything. That award seemed to be little more than an expression of relief that the George W. Bush presidency was over and the disastrous war in Iraq might finally end. Even Obama seemed somewhat embarrassed by winning the award as a noob. The Nobel Committee pretty clearly tried to entice Obama to be a future peacemaker. So there’s precedent.

Trump might reject the terms. So what? Then it looks like an epic troll in the service of actual peace. It would still serve the purpose of enumerating why Trump can never legitimately win the Nobel Peace Prize while rampaging throughout his own country, and others.

But what if he took the deal? Unseemly, sure. Yet it would probably save lives and serve the cause of stability in Minnesota, eastern Europe, Latin America and other hotspots. The Nobel Committee itself might be sowing peace. Is the Nobel Peace Prize so august that it can’t be used to exploit an authoritarian’s vanity for the benefit of humanity? 🤔