Rahm Emanuel writes for the Washington Post:
What’s 18-karat gold, bears the face of a Swedish inventor and keeps Donald Trump awake at night? The Nobel Peace Prize. Trump began obsessing over the annual award long before he failed to win one during his first term as president. Much of his griping has been aimed at Barack Obama, who was awarded the prize in 2009 “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.” “They gave one to Obama immediately after his ascent to the presidency, and he had no idea why he got it,” Trump complained in 2019. He has vented at rallies, during interviews and at private dinners with visiting foreign guests.
The president-elect is already Nobel Peace Prize shopping, peering down the aisles of conflict and crisis to gauge the easiest route to capturing the coveted award to adorn the lobby of Mar-a-Lago. How else do you explain Trump’s about-face on Iran, from advocating a “maximum pressure” strategy during his first term to announcing in September that he’s open to talks with the Iranian regime? Though it’s easy to scoff with moral superiority at Trump’s obsession with the Nobel, his vanity offers an opportunity to end hostilities in a number of global hot spots.
Read the full op-ed. It’s quite the interesting take. Gift link.