This Just In: No Prize For Donald

This Just In — It won’t be shocking to me when tomorrow arrives and somehow, inexplicably, Donald Trump’s campaign to receive a Nobel Prize for Peace is not rewarded with that prestigious honor. No surprise at all.

Trump has bragged, bullied and BS’d his way to this point, engaging in the cosplay of being a peacemaker. He’s made ridiculous claims of settling conflicts all over the globe, never letting facts or geography get in the way of a spectacular claim. At first, he claimed to have settled five conflicts, then it was six or seven, then ten, now we’re back to seven with the possible cease fire agreement in Gaza being the magic number eight.

To be sure, an end to hostilities and commencement of rebuilding in Gaza will be a welcome event, no matter who is behind it and I’ll be delighted to say “good for him” if credible reporting tells us that Trump convinced Netanyahu to make a deal.

The problem for Donald in his quest to be hailed as a leader for peace is what he’s been up to domestically. This stuff matters to the Nobel Committee, too.

It matters that Trump has been engaged in the abuse of the National Guard in many states (see Electoral College map/Blue/Democratic-run cities) to try to normalize the visual of troops on the streets of American cities. It’s not normal. It’s obvious that he is planning to intimidate voters at the polls in these cities next year, preventing a blue tsunami from taking over the Congress.

It matters that when asked if he is considering suspending Habeus Corpus for the sake of rounding up immigrants, the President responded by asking “Who?’ as though it was a person he might kick off the payroll. With restatement of the question, he deferred to Kristi Noem, Homeland Security Secretary, who has no authority in the matter.

It matters that with his government shut down, causing a cascade of problems for his people from suspension of government workers getting paid to living with the threat that he might conduct massive firings, the president’s assurance to the public was that the vanity project of an unnecessary ballroom being added to the White House would not be interrupted by the shutdown because it’s privately funded.

It matters that Trump has demonstrated a disgusting willingness to publish AI-generated content on his various social media feeds. That alone is bad. The fact that it’s usually racist and inflammatory is worse. This is a president who is engaged every day in an effort to divide his people and pit groups of Americans against one another.

It matters that this administration ended the food subsidies provided to the world though USAID and refused to release food and supplies already in the field instead of releasing what remained, destroying it instead. This is little else but murder by starvation as an end result and Donald Trump as no problem with that.

These things matter to the Nobel Committee and they are viewed with alarm around the world. The Republican Party, stunningly weak and feckless, is beginning to learn from their constituents that in fact the democrats are not being bombastic when they claim that approval of Trump’s budget will lead directly to the closing of rural hospitals that serve their constituents. It’s not hyperbole. It’s brutality. Marie Antoinette would blush.

Many in the GOP have heard these objections from Democrats before, but apparently (I don’t wonder why) they didn’t trust the data. Now that their phones are ringing from hospital administrators back home and constituents who are receiving notices that their health insurance premiums will more than double, now it’s real.

All of these things matter to the Nobel Committee. There will be no prize for Donald. No golden medal. No million dollars. Not this year. Not any year.

(featured image: AP Photo/Alex Brandon.)