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On Wednesday at the White House, a reporter asked five visiting heads of African countries what they thought about the prospect of Donald Trump winning the Nobel Peace Prize.
And, one after another, they fell all over themselves to make clear he would be not a good choice but a great choice.
“In the short time you've been back in office, the last few months you came to the rescue for peace,” said Mauritania President Mohamed Ould Ghazouani.
“I think that President Trump deserves it for all the efforts that he’s worked on,” said Gabon President Brice Oligui Nguema.
Trump was clearly thrilled. “Thank you very much. Very nice. Thank you,” he said. “I didn't know I'd be treated this nicely. This is great. We could do this all day long.”
The question about the Peace prize came just days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu handed Trump a letter in which he formally nominated the president for the prize.
“I want to present to you, Mr. President, the letter I sent to the Nobel Prize committee,” Netanyahu said in front of the TV cameras during a visit to Washington earlier this week. “It’s nominating you for the Peace Prize. It’s well deserved, and you should get it.”
Netanyahu said he nominated Trump for the 2020 Abraham Accords as well as the work the president has done since returning to office in late January.
What Netanyahu and the African leaders have figured out is a) Trump loves flattery (who doesn’t!) and b) he really wants to win a Nobel Peace Prize.
He’s had a love/hate relationship with the prize for a very long time — often suggesting he should have already won it but hasn’t because, uh, “they” are against him.
Here’s a Trump post last month on the subject:
If you think that’s all that matters to him, you don’t know much about Donald Trump.
Trump wants the Nobel Peace Prize for (at least) three reasons:
He has always been obsessed with external recognition. Witness his fake Time “Man of the Year” covers at his golf club
Barack Obama has one and Trump is competitive with Obama
Trump wants to matter in historical terms. He wants to be a consequential president. And he views the Nobel Peace Prize as the ultimate conveyor of gravitas and historical weight.
Will he win? Who knows! The decision is made by five Norwegians. It’s a secretive and odd process. (I mean, Obama won after being in office for a handful of months — and was clearly somewhat confused at winning.)
But, for Trump, it would be a career capper. A recognition from the international community of his import. And man does he ever crave that.
