Donald Trump may not have won a Nobel peace prize, but last weekend he was at least given something: the inaugural Fifa peace prize.
The Fifa prize’s existence was announced remarkably soon after the Nobel went to Venezuelan opposition leader, María Corina Machado. Gianni Infantino, the controversial Fifa president, has been toadying to Trump for years, so after he introduced the prize – in response to zero demand – it was little surprise that Trump got the trophy.
Handing the terrifying-looking award to Trump, during an event which was supposed to be about drawing teams for the World Cup, Infantino said the prize is given to a “distinguished individual who exemplifies an unwavering commitment to advancing peace and unity throughout the world through their notable leadership and action”.
Quite. And just three days after receiving the award, there was an opportunity for Trump to show off that commitment to peace and unity when he sat down for an interview with Politico.
Instead of doing that, Trump immediately demonstrated why many felt he was an unusual choice for a peace prize, as the president praised an autocrat, said Europe should “send back” asylum seekers to Congo, and compared the president of Ukraine to a 19th century conman.
Along the way Trump, 79, exhibited the same unusual patterns of speaking that has led some to believe he is slowing down, confusing Crimea’s geography and talking about his “eyes” and “ears” in a manner unlikely to convince his critics that he is on top of his game.
I have eyes. I have ears. I have, er, knowledge.
Asked if he might wade into European elections, Trump noted that he had endorsed Viktor Orbán, the Hungarian president and autocrat, and pointed to his relationship with Javier Milei, the right-wing president of Argentina.
“I endorsed uh … go back to South America, Latin America, South America, uh, Milei, Argentina. He was losing in the election, and I endorsed him and he won in a landslide,” Trump said.
Trump endorsed Milei in October, and Milei’s party did indeed win Argentina’s midterm elections later that month, although the win fell short of giving him a congressional majority.
Trump also lamented that Europe was allowing “tremendous numbers of people” to come from “prisons of the Congo”.
“They want to be politically correct, and they don’t want to send ‘em back to where they came from,” Trump said of Congolese people, many of whom are fleeing from war and violence at home. It wasn’t the first time this month that Trump has addressed the issue of African emigration: at a cabinet meeting he previously stated that Somalia “stinks” and declared Somali immigrants to be “garbage”. In a speech yesterday, he once again made false and racist claims about Ilhan Omar and Somalia.
There was more to come in the Politico interview, as the peace prize winner launched an unprompted attack on Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London. “He’s a horrible mayor. He’s an incompetent mayor, but he’s a horrible, vicious, disgusting mayor,” Trump said.
Regarding European politics Trump, who is the oldest person ever to be inaugurated president, added this:
“I do explain to Europe because I think, you know, I’m supposed to be a very smart person, I can, I have eyes. I have ears. I have, er, knowledge. I have vast knowledge.”
Trump then discussed Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine, and showed his age somewhat with one of his references.
“I call him PT Barnum. You know who PT Barnum was, right?” Trump asked his interviewer, referring to a circus owner, showman, and con-artist who died in 1891.
It wasn’t the only thing Trump had to say on the Ukraine-Russia conflict, a war he famously said he would solve within 24 hours, but which he very much has not solved.
Of Crimea, the peninsula which is key to the conflict, Trump said:
“It’s surrounded on four sides by ocean. It’s only got a little piece of land to get to, you know, to the main, well, the main, I mean, Crimea’s massive. But it connects the part of Ukraine that we talk about now through a small, little jetty.”
Trump continued: “I have great knowledge of Ukraine now. I have great knowledge of many countries.”
Crimea, which is surrounded by the Black Sea and the smaller Sea of Azov, is connected to mainland Ukraine by a strip of land called the Isthmus of Perekop, which is three miles wide, and by a $3.37bn bridge which opened in 2018.
Away from the geopolitics, there was just enough time for Trump to call a US congresswoman “stupid”, to dog whistle about “Barack Hussein Obama”, and to waffle about ending birthright citizenship.
In short, it was a typical Donald Trump performance: aggressive, inaccurate, inappropriate. And above all, the interview served as evidence that Trump will continue to be a long shot for any peace award, let alone the Nobel prize he craves.
