By Patrick F. Cannon

President Trump may have been disappointed not to have been given the Nobel Peace Prize this year, despite very public lobbying by his adoring minions. Nevertheless, if the peace agreement he negotiated with Israel and Hamas holds, I say give it to him. After all, it’s been given to some pretty dodgy characters over the years, including Henry Kissinger, Yasser Arafat, and even the United Nations.

            He would be the fifth American president to be honored – starting with Teddy Roosevelt, and including Woodrow Wilson, Jimmy Carter, and Barack Obama. Roosevelt won it in 1906 for brokering peace between Japan and Russia to end the Russo-Japanese War; Wilson for his famous 14 Points peace plan (it didn’t work in the end) and for helping to found the League of Nations (which we refused to join); Jimmy Carter for his achievement in getting Egypt and Israel to bury the hatchet at Camp David and for the achievements of the Carter Center; and Barack Obama for being the first black president, a good speaker, having a photogenic family, and saying nice things about world peace..

             Despite changing the name of the Department of Defense to the Department of War, sending troops to frighten shoppers on Chicago’s Michigan Avenue (a city with a declining crime rate), and saving court costs by killing drug traffickers on the high seas, President Trump  has always styled himself as a man of peace. This would certainly explain his avoiding the draft during the Viet Nam years with a diagnosis of bone spurs by a podiatrist whose office was conveniently located in a Trump-owned building in Queens.

            Being nominated for the Peace Prize next year will also give Trump an opportunity to broker a peace between Russia and Ukraine. You may recall that he claimed he would end both the Gaza and Ukraine wars the day after he took office, but of course that was his usual hyperbolic bluster. But if he manages to broker a peace in Ukraine too, that should seal the deal.  

I’m afraid I’m not on the list of those who can submit a nomination. You can nominate if you’re a head of  state (but alas you can’t nominate yourself); member of a national assembly or government; member of the International Court of Justice; a professor of history, social sciences, law, philosophy, theology or religion; university rector or director; past Peace Prize recipient; or member of the Norwegian Nobel Committee.

            Don’t despair if you’re not on the list. You can always write and encourage those on the list to do the deed for you. For example, you could write to your representatives in Washington to submit nominations. In my case, it would be Congressman Danny Davis and Senators Tammy Duckworth and Richard Durbin. I’m sure they would be willing to put patriotism above partisanship for this worthy cause.

            One American who should have been awarded the Peace Prize was former Maine Senator Geoge J. Mitchell, who brokered the deal that ended the so-called “troubles” in Northern Ireland with the Good Friday  agreement of 1998, ending (at least so far) the armed fued between Roman Catholics and Protestants that dated back to 1542, when Henry VIII was declared King of Ireland. The immediate cause of the Arab/Israeli conflict was the foundation of the State of Israel in 1948, a mere 77 years ago compared to the 456 years it took to bring peace to Ireland.

Copyright 2025, Patrick F. Cannon