I have been watching a show called Bosch on Prime Video. Two of the characters are long-time detective partners on the verge of retirement. They are a classic yin/yang duo and fond of each other. One is nicknamed Barrel, and the other is nicknamed Crate (apparently a reference to the retailer Crate and Barrel).

Crate is tall and thin while Barrel is short, somewhat squat, and resembles a barrel. They retire. Called back into action, Barrel says: “We are gone but not forgotten.” Crate laconically retorts “Actually, we are forgotten but not gone.”

Sooner or later, most of us will not only be gone but also forgotten.

Which brings us to the Nobel Prize for Peace. To the average person, the Peace Prize is the most prestigious of the Nobel prizes and that particular honor may best ensure that the prize winner will not be forgotten at least for a number of years. Certain winners like Martin Luther King, Jr. (1964) will be remembered for years but the most recent winner Nihon Hydankyo of Japan (2024) will probably have a relatively short shelf life.

There are five other Nobel prizes: chemistry, physics, physiology or medicine, literature and economics. 

Four presidents have won the Nobel prize for Peace. Teddy Roosevelt won it for his successful efforts to end the Russian Japanese war. Woodrow Wilson won it for his efforts to establish the League of Nations. Jimmy Carter won it for his role in the 1972 Camp David Accords and for his untiring efforts to bring peace after his presidency. Barack Obama won it after nine months in the presidency for basically doing nothing. A member of the Nobel Committee who awarded it to Obama said it was “aspirational” and that the aspirations were never achieved.

Even Obama in his acceptance speech recognized that the award was controversial. “And yet I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge the considerable controversy your generous decision has generated.”

The Nobel prize is one that comes to the individual not one that the individual attempts to gain. President Trump is not one to honor tradition and so he is lobbying to be awarded the prize. Any number of world leaders are supporting his effort including Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel. Given the present war in Gaza, I’m not sure that I would want him to carry water for me. I am certain that our ambassador to Norway has only one job to complete. (The Peace prize is awarded by a Norwegian committee while the other Nobel prizes are awarded by a Swedish committee. Norway and Sweden were in a union at the time of Nobel’s death.)

According to Alfred Noble’s will, the prize will be awarded to a person “who has done the most or the best work to encourage fraternity between nations, to abolish or reduce standing armies and to encourage peace congresses.”

Given Trump’s current “America First” orientation, it would seem that he is not a candidate who satisfies Noble’s will. But to give the devil his due, his 2020 triumph in having several Arab nations recognize Israel (the Abraham Accords) was clearly deserving of the Nobel Peace Prize but his subsequent actions in Trump 2.0 may have negated that achievement.

Trump 2.0 seems to be the exact opposite of what Noble’s will dictated. He surely has not encouraged “fraternity between nations.” He obviously has no interest in restraining “standing armies” as he launches military strikes on Iran and boats off of Venezuela and is excessively proud of our military capability. As for “peace congresses,” he has withdrawn $1 billion in annual funding from the United Nations and plans the withdrawal another billion dollars annually. He has just renamed the Department of Defense to the Department of War.

While he said he would solve the Russia Ukraine war on “day one,” his efforts have been cosmetic and it appears that Putin is playing him for a chump. He has now withdrawn from his peace effort and said recently that it was up to Zelinsky to make peace. His efforts to secure peace in Gaza have been, first, to suggest that all the Palestinians be removed to other countries so the area could be redeveloped and now, second, there is no effort to restrain Israel. In fact, there is now full support of Netanyahu, and the slaughter continues.

Trump has an almost desperate need to be recognized. One funny story is how he posted a picture of himself on the front page of Time magazine at one of his golf clubs in Virginia. The problem was that he had never appeared, at that juncture, on the cover of Time and the picture at the golf club was a phony.

That being said, he surely is more deserving than Obama because of the Abraham Accords. His principal problem is that Trump being Trump and that the Norwegians being the Norwegians, I think the award is unlikely, particularly given Trump 2.0.

Which, without question, would be the correct result.