Trump does not deserve the Nobel Peace Prize

On Oct. 10, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the former Deputy of the National Assembly of Venezuela, Maria Corina Machado. She was given the award for her very successful efforts to eliminate authoritarianism and bring democracy to her home of Venezuela. She is a clear winner and nominee for the prize because of these efforts.

On the other hand, one of the other nominees for the prize was the current president of the U.S., Donald Trump. It is an outrage that he was even nominated for this prize. He has claimed to have ended the Israel-Hamas conflict through the ceasefire, however he also threatened to break the ceasefire when in a Truth Social post, he said, “If Hamas continues to kill people in Gaza, which was not the deal, we will have no choice but to go in and kill them.” That doesn’t sound very peaceful to me. 

After Machado was awarded the Peace Prize Trump claimed that he deserved it and not her. During a White House meeting Trump said, “They will never give me a Nobel Peace Prize. It’s too bad. I deserve it, but they will never give it to me.” 

What Trump says here shows another reason he shouldn’t have gotten the prize, anyone who claims that they “deserve” something and then when they don’t get it they whine and complain about it, never having deserved it in the first place. However, when Machado was told over the phone that she was going to be awarded the prize, she said, “I hope you understand that this is a movement; this is the achievement of a whole society. I’m just one person. I certainly do not deserve this.” 

That is what someone who is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize should be saying. In the moment of excitement she credited the people of her country and said it wasn’t just her. I guarantee if Trump had won he would have only talked about how great he is instead of thanking the people that helped him.

I am not the only one who feels this way about Trump’s reaction to not being awarded the prize. Kai Haggmark ‘28 said, “I don’t really know who the recipients were but I know it’s not Trump and that makes me happy. I feel like the fact that [Trump] claimed that he deserved [the Nobel Peace Prize] makes him not deserve it.” 

Honors and AP chemistry teacher at VHS Karen Reynosa said, “As a scientist, I find it laughable that a president would even dare to assume that they deserve something that is voted upon by scientists…the Nobel Peace Prize, especially in any peace, science, humanitarian, is like the one person on the planet that makes the planet a better place, and I’m pretty sure [Trump is] not that guy. No offense.” 

To recap, Trump helped create a ceasefire and then threatened to break it soon after along with complaining when he didn’t win the prize. Machado did so many things it is hard to list but a few of these accomplishments would be peacefully fighting against authoritarianism for over twenty years to help create a safer country for the Venezuelan people, establishing the Atenea foundation in the capital city of Venezuela as well as being humble and crediting her people when being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.