Donald Trump will never earn a Nobel Peace Prize, so he did the next best thing. He dangled the possibility of supporting democracy in Venezuela in front of Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado if she would give him her Nobel prize. She fell for it, but she should have known better. Trump doesn’t want democracy in Venezuela. He doesn’t even want democracy in America. He’s much more comfortable dealing with dictators, since that is what he wants to be.
But why would he want someone else’s Nobel Peace Prize? Ego, pure and simple. Egos are like balloons. The bigger the ego gets, the more fragile it becomes. Trump’s ego is enormous by any standard and is so fragile it could burst at any moment. This is why he lies about his approval ratings, which are the lowest of any president since Nixon.
Trump has no control over his megalomania. It is spinning out of control, his or anyone else’s. Just look at the Epstein coverup, the baseless investigation of Fed chair Jerome Powell, the attack on Venezuela, the threats against Greenland, the Gestapoization of ICE, unwarranted seizure of Washington Post government reporter Hannah Natanson’s phone and laptops, keeping money from seized Venezuelan oil in Qatar rather than in U.S. banks, the unsupportable indictments of political enemies, the alienation of all our traditional allies, his use of government to enrich himself, and a hundred other outrages.
Some Republican lawmakers are finally getting fed up. Most Americans have been there for a long time. We can only hope that someday soon John Curtis, Mike Kennedy, Celeste Maloy, and Blake Moore will find the courage to speak out and vote according to the oaths they took. Burgess Owens and Mike Lee? Sadly, they are beyond redemption.
Roger Terry, Orem
Donate to the newsroom now. The Salt Lake Tribune, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) public charity and contributions are tax deductible