President Donald Trump craved — but didn’t win — an Emmy for his TV show. But we’ve all heard that he may be in line for a more coveted award: the Nobel Peace Prize.
Last week, that seemed like a possibility. This week, we’re less certain.
For one thing, Trump’s highly anticipated summit with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un may or may not occur.
For another, the Middle East erupted after Trump kept his promise to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
But there’s plenty of time before the Nobel acceptance speeches at Oslo City Hall.
When asked recently if he deserves the prize, Trump responded with uncharacteristic modesty: “Everyone thinks so, but I would never say it,” he said. “The prize I want is victory for the world.”
The prospect of a Trump Nobel doesn’t perturb us. Sure, we prefer Nobel Peace Prize winners to have demonstrably advanced world peace, not just powwowed with adversaries at summits like the one that will, or won’t, occur with Kim. Action, not bluster.
But the committee bestowed the 2009 prize on President Barack Obama before he’d done much, if anything, to earn it. As we said then: His contributions to world peace lie more in the realm of promise than reality.
If Trump earns the prize for ridding the Korean Peninsula of nukes, then he will deserve the prize — and likely share it with North Korea’s Kim, South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in and maybe even Chinese President Xi Jinping.
We wonder, too, if Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei could catch Nobel fever. Trump just shredded the Iran nuclear deal. Iran’s in a tight spot — its economy spiraling, with protesters as likely to blame the Tehran regime as the Great Satan. Seems like a good time for Khamenei make good on oft-repeated, oft-violated promises that the Islamic Republic would never seek to build nuclear weapons.
Khamenei could order the country’s nuclear infrastructure dismantled. He could take advantage of a long-standing sweetheart offer from many countries, including the U.S. and Russia, that would enable Tehran to buy all the low-enriched nuclear fuel for its power needs.
So far, Trump has tromped on delicate diplomatic protocols while trying to move global geopolitics past the often sclerotic status quo. Maybe he’ll find a way to make peace with some long-standing adversaries. We’ll see.
The best way for Trump to punch his ticket to Oslo? Deliver results.
— Chicago Tribune
