The Nobel Committee’s decision was more than the awarding of a prize. It drew a moral line between the civilized world and the culture of violence. The fact that Donald Trump did not receive the Nobel Peace Prize is, in itself, a reason for humanity to hope.
The Nobel Committee made a wonderful decision that restored faith in humanity in a world that has gone upside down and insane, a world where Donald Trump can be President of the United States and was also craving the Nobel Peace Prize.
Moreover, he was not only craving it, but, in his usual way, he tried to blackmail and threaten his way into it. The prize, however, was not awarded to him but to a Democrat who represents his complete opposite, and the decision sent wonderful messages to a world that has lost its moral compass.
If there is anyone who does not deserve a Peace Prize, it is Donald Trump. Not only because, contrary to his promises, he did not create peace in the Russia–Ukraine war within 24 hours, but because he has created in America such a state of unrest that could have disastrous consequences.
A man who rules like a king while being democratically elected, who sends the military against his political opponents, who attacks Democratic-led cities and states, wanted to win the Peace Prize for himself. He reshaped the ICE agency in the image of his own brutality.
Americans can now witness scenes that evoke Nazi Germany: brutal violence against defenseless people and journalists. Trump blackmails and threatens the entire world with underworld tactics and tariffs. He even threatened to occupy Canada and Greenland.
Trump released a Russian mass-murderer and war criminal from international isolation, hoping that it would bring him the Nobel Peace Prize. Instead of peace, he gained nothing. In pursuit of the prize, he threatened everyone in the Middle East with death and proclaimed eternal peace without any foundation.
Trump regards Gaza as a real estate development project. His so-called “peace plan” was rejected by the Hamas terrorist organization, to whom he promised safe passage and the release of prisoners in hopes of gaining control of the territory.
He persuaded Netanyahu to accept a ceasefire only for the sake of the Nobel Peace Prize. That is not real peace. Hamas did not lay down its arms, nor did it dissolve itself. Gaza was handed over to no one. No Nobel Prize should be given for such a false pretense.
There have been controversial laureates of the Nobel Committee before, but awarding the Peace Prize to the violent, intimidating, threatening dictator Trump would have meant the denial of all human values and would have extinguished the last spark of faith and hope in humanity’s future.
To grant the world’s most noble distinction to an openly racist, hateful man convicted of violence against women would have marked the moral low point of human civilization. Yet the Nobel Committee’s decision sent multiple messages to the world.
Above all, it spoke through courage and independence, by refusing to honor a potential global dictator with a Peace Prize, upholding its values, and bravely resisting Trump’s violent pressure. It set an example of how to stand up to narcissistic dictators.
It also carries symbolic meaning that the laureate is a democratic opposition leader from Venezuela. Venezuela is high on Trump’s list of hatred, so the fact that Trump was overtaken by a Venezuelan is a wonderful and resounding slap in the arrogant and conceited face.
The fact that the laureate is the leader of the opposition in a dictatorship sends a message not only to Trump but also to Americans who, within Trump’s emerging dictatorship, struggle to find ways to stand up for democracy and resist tyranny. It is also significant that the misogynistic, women-hating, abusive Trump was defeated by a woman.
If we line it up — that she is Venezuelan, opposition, democratic, and a woman — it becomes a clear declaration of allegiance to the highest human values, and at the same time a public stance against Trump himself. This means the Nobel Committee went beyond simply not choosing him.
The Nobel Committee, in fact, chose someone against Trump. They did not merely pass him over; they explicitly voted against him. They declared that the future of the world and humanity is not Trump, but everything that stands in opposition to him.
This is not politics. It is a question of human values and fundamental moral principles.
