I’ll always remember where I was on Oct. 10, 2025, the day Donald J. Trump was viciously denied the Nobel Peace Prize and the world stopped making sense.

Trump had humbly and incessantly campaigned for himself to be honored with the prize, even going so far as to make up claims about stopping wars. He clearly wanted the Nobel Peace Prize like a hungry dog wants a biscuit, and how did the Norwegian Nobel Committee members reward his selfless self-promotion?

They gave the prize to someone I’ve never heard of, Venezuelan opposition activist María Corina Machado. I don’t think she’s even an American!

MAGA is outraged over Trump's Nobel Peace Prize snub. Me, too.

Trump confidante Laura Loomer wrote on social media: “What an absolute joke. Everyone knows President Trump deserves the Nobel Peace Prize. More affirmative action nonsense.”

The 1.3-million-follower X account MAGA Voice wrote: “Some random person that nobody knows, Maria Machado, just won the Nobel Peace Prize. THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE IS A JOKE.”

This is an absolute outrage. I’m not sure I want to live in a world where a wealthy older white man who is a convicted felon and was found liable for sexual abuse can’t successfully demand the same honor previously bestowed upon people like Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela, the 14th Dalai Lama, Jimmy Carter and Malala Yousafzai.

How cruel does Trump have to be before they give him a peace prize?

In what insane universe does a Republican president who denied the results of a presidential election he lost and fomented an attack on the U.S. Capitol, who is presently siccing U.S. soldiers on Democratic-led cities for no reason beyond spite, while mercilessly rounding up immigrants in grotesquely violent ways, NOT get a prize for peace that he VERY CLEARLY wanted?

This sounds a lot like consequences, and we all know consequences are woke.

Noted humanitarian Vladimir Putin was on Trump's side

Even noted peacenik Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, who, aside from killing or wounding hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians, is a great humanitarian, criticized the Norwegian committee’s decision: “This award lost credibility.”

The benevolent Russian leader who may or may not routinely murder his critics is right. If Trump, a man who made baseless claims that Haitian immigrants in Ohio were eating people’s pets and who routinely labels Black critics “low IQ” people, can’t win the Nobel Peace Prize thanks to a pressure campaign, what good is the Nobel Peace Prize?

Trump humbly foresaw this outcome. On Feb. 4, he 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.”

'He has the heart of a humanitarian'

That breaks my heart. As White House Communications Director Steven Cheung wrote of Trump on social media Oct. 10: “He has the heart of a humanitarian, and there will never be anyone like him who can move mountains with the sheer force of his will. The Nobel Committee proved they place politics over peace.”

Who, besides Trump, noted humanitarian, could have wiped out the U.S. Agency for International Development and billions of dollars in foreign aid, prompting peaceful headlines like this: "Starving children screaming for food as US aid cuts unleash devastation and death across Myanmar."

Only twisted liberals would think character, objective reality and actual accomplishments are necessary for a rich person to get what he wants.

It's OK, President Trump. We'll give you an AMERICAN peace prize!

Rep. Buddy Carter, R-Georgia, presented a sensible fix to this tragedy on Trump's behalf: “He deserves the Nobel Peace Prize. And that's why I'm introducing a resolution (on Oct. 10) that will honor him with the Nobel Peace Prize.”

Great thinking, Buddy, because that’s exactly how the Nobel Peace Prize works!

If those dopey Norwegians won’t honor OUR president, we will. And we’ll give him this AMERICAN peace prize as soon as he’s done blasting boats out of the water in the Caribbean and claiming, without proof, that they’re filled with drugs and smugglers.

Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on Bluesky at @rexhuppke.bsky.social and on Facebook at facebook.com/RexIsAJerk

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: If a humanitarian like Trump doesn't deserve the Nobel Peace Prize, who does? | Opinion

Reporting by Rex Huppke, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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