The person who’s been waging illegal wars
Actually, it’s a reminder of what a strong malignant
narcissist can accomplish when untethered from reality.
Gianni Infantino, president of FIFA, the world
football league, awarded Trump the first (and likely last) annual FIFA Peace
Prize — along with a hagiographic video of Trump and “peace.”
What FIFA has to do with peace is anyone’s guess, but
Infantino is evidently trying to curry favor with Trump. (Infantino, by the
way, oversaw the 2020 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, defending and minimizing Qatar’s
miserable human rights record. He also played a key role in selecting Saudi
Arabia to host the 2034 FIFA World Cup, notwithstanding the Saudi murder
of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.)
Both Trump’s absurd renaming of the U.S. Institute of Peace
and the equally absurd FIFA award are parts of Trump’s campaign to get the
Nobel Peace Prize — something he has coveted since Barack Obama was awarded it
in 2009 (anything Obama got credited with, Trump wants to discredit or match).
Ironically, Trump has declared war on Venezuela, without
congressional authorization — causing the death so far of at least 87 people
bombed by American military jets targeting vessels allegedly carrying
drugs into the United States.
Those 87 include two people who barely survived a first
bombing, only to be bombed again. (Rep. Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the
House Intelligence Committee, who saw a video of the second strike in a
closed-door briefing, told CBS’s “Face the Nation” yesterday that the two
survivors “were barely alive, much less engaging in hostilities,” when the
follow-up strike took place.)
Trump has designated a Venezuelan criminal group — Cartel de
los Soles — as a Foreign Terrorist Organization led by Venezuelan president
Nicolás Maduro. Yet analysts have pointed out that the Cartel de los Soles is
not a hierarchical group but an umbrella term used to describe corrupt
Venezuelan officials who have allowed cocaine to transit through the country.
Could it be that Trump wants access to Venezuela’s vast oil
reserves?
He doesn’t seem to be particularly upset about cocaine
trafficking. While he’s bombing small vessels in the Caribbean allegedly for
smuggling fentanyl into the United States, Trump is pardoning Honduras’ former
president Juan Orlando Hernández, who was convicted of trafficking large
amounts of cocaine into the United States.
Trump is also in the process of giving eastern Ukraine to
Vladimir Putin. Steve Witkoff, Trump’s golf pal and itinerant diplomat, has
offered Yuri Ushakov, Vladimir Putin’s top foreign policy adviser, a plan for
carving up disputed territory in a way likely to appeal to Putin.
As revealed in a transcript
of a recent meeting, Witkoff told Ushakov, “Now, me to you, I know what
it’s going to take to get a peace deal done: Donetsk and maybe a land swap
somewhere.”
Witkoff also advised Ushakov on how Putin can get the best
deal for Russia — by having Putin flatter America’s narcissist-in-chief:
”Make the call and just reiterate that you congratulate the
president on this achievement [in Gaza], that you supported it, that you
respect that he is a man of peace and you’re just, you’re really glad to have
seen it happen.”
Ushakov responded:
“Hey Steve, I agree with you that he will congratulate, he
will say that Mr. Trump is a real peace man and so-and-so. That he will say.”
While Witkoff has been seeking a “peace” deal in Ukraine by
giving Putin much of what Putin wants, Witkoff and presidential son-in-law
Jared Kushner have been seeking billions of dollars in business deals with
Russia. It’s a brazen conflict of interest.
Witkoff spoke on the record to The Wall
Street Journal, characterizing the talks with Russia over oil, gas, and
rare-earth minerals as “a bulwark against future conflicts there. Because
everybody’s thriving.”
Everyone’s thriving, that is, except Ukrainians and those
conscripted into the Russian army.
Other potential beneficiaries of the deal include
ExxonMobil, along with a Trump donor and college pal of Donald Trump Jr. with
the improbable name Gentry
Beach. Beach hopes to acquire a 9.9 percent stake in a Russian Arctic gas
project.
Meanwhile, Trump has allowed Benjamin Netanyahu to continue
bombing Gaza, even after declaring a ceasefire there.
Peace prize? Please.
Trump is taking credit for achieving “peace” between nations
that weren’t even at war.
He’s also trying to change the name of the Department of
Defense back to the Department of War.
And he’s conjuring up “enemies within” the United States as
pretexts for prosecuting political opponents, attacking American universities,
and attempting to stifle media criticism of himself and his administration.
According to Alfred Nobel’s will, the Peace Prize is awarded
to the person who in the preceding year “shall have done the most or the best
work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing
armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.” Nobel’s will
further specified that the prize be awarded by a committee of five people
chosen by the Norwegian Parliament.
Memo to the Norwegian Parliament and the Nobel committee: No
president in American history deserves the Nobel Peace Prize less than does
Donald J. Trump.
