Donald Trump said he could not think of anyone in history who deserved the Nobel Peace Prize more than he does. He did not want to brag, he added. Then he continued bragging.
No one else had ended wars, Trump said. Which wars, he did not say. Iran continues to be bombed. Lebanon as well. The Houthis are newly in the war. 2,500 Marines are off the coast of the Middle East on a ship waiting for orders. The presumed future Nobel Peace Prize laureate has just threatened to destroy Iranian power plants if the Strait of Hormuz is not opened within 48 hours. He has already extended the deadline twice because nothing has happened.
Alfred Nobel once established the prize for people who have contributed to understanding between nations. Trump has nominated himself because he considers it appropriate. That is a kind of self confidence for which there is no prize - or perhaps there is, it just has a different name.
We would have a suggestion. Lego, the Danish company based in Billund, could produce a very personal building set for Trump - assemble it anew every day, admire it anew every day, the satisfying feeling of having created something great, entirely without bombs. The Nobel Peace Prize as a building set would be conceivable, the White House complex, perhaps a Nobel Peace Prize made of plastic bricks. The problem: Lego is Danish, and Denmark is one of the countries Trump has even brought military options into play against in the dispute over Greenland - although the future of the island is not decided by Copenhagen alone, but above all by the Greenlanders themselves. The man who claims the Nobel Peace Prize for himself has therefore threatened one of the most peaceful countries in the world with possible military force because he wanted an island. The Lego building set thus remains a nice idea without a delivery address. And Denmark, the small country with the large toy company, sits in Copenhagen and likely asks itself every day how it ended up in this story.
A therapy against this kind of self glorification is not known. No doctor, no adviser, no defeat has helped so far. Trump has been like this for decades, and the prospect that anything will change is about as realistic as his Nobel Peace Prize. One could ignore it, but he does not allow that. Every day a new sentence, every day a new superlative, every day the same face on the screen explaining how great everything is. At some point, one no longer asks what he means - but when he will finally stop.
What remains is a man who, at a press conference, declares himself the greatest in history while his generals select targets for the next day. The Nobel Peace Prize is waiting. The missiles as well.
Updates – Kaizen News Brief
All current curated daily updates can be found in the Kaizen News Brief.
To the Kaizen News Brief In English
Zum Lachen wenn’s nicht so traurig wäre
…da kann ich ihnen nur recht geben