Cogito Ergo Non Serviam
Machado Donates Nobel Medal to Trump
The United States of America has has some lousy presidents: Andrew Jackson, James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, Warren Harding and George Bush the Younger. None, however, have had the massive needy ego of Donald John Trump. He is desperate for attention and praise. He has been so weak that he has create fake covers of Time Magazine Featuring himself. The whole world knows that he wants a Nobel Peace Prize, mostly because Barack Obama has one. His antics as president mean he will never get such an award. His vanity is his greatest weakness, and Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado played on this when she handed him her Nobel medal yesterday.
Ms. Machado was banned from running in the last election in Venezuela, so her lieutenant Edmundo Gonzalez ran in her stead. Independent observers say he won, but the Maduro government ignored the result. By any democratic measure, Ms. Machado is a more legitimate leader than anyone in the Venezuelan regime.
When Mr. Trump abducted President Nicolas Maduro, the American president made clear that he did not think Ms. Machado should lead the country. He claimed she lacked the "respect" needed to govern. If respect means winning an outright majority over the votes, she is more legitimate than he is. Instead, he and his minions decided to leave the Maduro regime in place after removing Maduro. He is content with the second banana in the Venezuelan government, Delcy Rodriguez, taking over from Mr. Machado. It is a bit like being OK with Khrushchev taking over from Stalin. She is not a friend of the USA.
So yesterday, Ms. Machado did what most wise world leaders do; she bribed the American president. Reuters explained:
Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado gave her Nobel Peace Prize medal to U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday during a White House meeting, in a bid to influence his efforts to shape her country's political future.
A White House official confirmed that Trump intends to keep the medal.
In a social media post on Thursday evening, Trump wrote: "Maria presented me with her Nobel Peace Prize for the work I have done. Such a wonderful gesture of mutual respect. Thank you Maria!"
One hopes that someone has explained to him that such a medal has brought more than $100 million at auction. Pranav Baskar wrote in the New York Times, "In 2022, the Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov auctioned his Nobel Peace Prize for a record-breaking $103.5 million to raise money for Ukrainian child refugees. In 2014, James Watson sold his medal for over $4 million, having been awarded it decades earlier for codiscovering the structure of DNA." While that is a wide range, the gift is a substantial one either way.
With that kind of bribe on the table, M. Machado has bought something with the American president. Suddenly, there is mutual respect. She has said and done nice things for him, as he would put it. The world is about to find out if she can leverage that into getting a role in governing Venezuela.
The Venezuelan problem is not going away. The Maduro-less regime is still there, and many of the hardliners hate Yankees. Ms. Machado and her people are not in control. Neither are the Americans. With no one really in control, the problems will fester.
Yet the pathetic nonsense here is how very easily Ms. Machado has mainpulated the American president. For a few ounces of metal, he is willing to alter his policies. For a tiny stroking of his ego, he will change his tune. Were he less awful, one might even pity him.
The decline under the Trump administration continues to accelerate.
© Copyright 2026 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Ubuntu Linux.
|
|
|
