Through the 2026 World Cup draw on Friday, FIFA awarded President Donald Trump its first-ever “FIFA Peace Prize” — a gold medal and huge trophy which might be completely, completely not a comfort prize after he misplaced out on the Nobel Peace Prize earlier this 12 months.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino lavished reward on Trump whereas handing over the award “in recognition of his distinctive and extraordinary actions to advertise peace and unity world wide.”
A video that performed earlier than Trump took the stage described him as “a dynamic chief who has engaged in diplomatic efforts that created alternatives for dialog, de-escalation and stability, and who has championed the unifying energy of soccer on the world stage.”
Earlier within the day, when reporters requested in regards to the upcoming award, the president repeated a model of his misleading claim, saying he has settled “eight wars.”
Trump gave a brief acceptance speech after he was awarded FIFA’s obsequious new award, calling it “one of many nice honors” of his life earlier than pivoting to ticket gross sales for the upcoming FIFA World Cup, which he claimed are transferring effectively.
“The numbers are past any numbers,” the president noticed.
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This 12 months’s Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Venezuelan opposition chief María Corina Machado. Trump claims Machado referred to as him afterward and stated she accepted the prize in Trump’s honor as a result of he was the one who “actually deserved it.”
Infantino and Trump are shut allies. So shut, even, that in July, Infantino let Trump keep the Membership World Cup’s 24-karat-gold-plated trophy, forcing FIFA to present a reproduction to the event’s precise profitable crew.
Trump’s acceptance of a peace prize coincides with rising furor over actions being looked at as a potential war crime carried out by his administration throughout an assault on alleged drug smugglers in September.
The president additionally not too long ago pardoned a former Honduran president who had been sentenced to many years in jail for swamping the United States with hundreds of tons of cocaine.
