President Donald Trump’s obsession with obtaining a Nobel Peace Prize after he was yet again passed over for the honor last year reached a new cringeworthy low on Thursday. During a White House visit, Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado gifted Trump her recently won Nobel Peace Prize and the two posed for pictures with the award.
“María presented me with her Nobel Peace Prize for the work I have done,” Trump gushed on his social media account.
Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado waves to supporters on Pennsylvania Avenue as she leaves the White House after meeting with Trump on Jan. 15, in Washington.
But in reality, all Trump received was a fancy piece of paper in a frame. The Nobel committee restated its policy on the award, noting, “One truth remains. As the Norwegian Nobel Committee states: 'Once a Nobel Prize is announced, it cannot be revoked, shared, or transferred to others. The decision is final and stands for all time.'”
Trump has been salivating over winning a Nobel Peace Prize for over sixteen years, after the committee bestowed the honor on former President Barack Obama in 2009. Obama received the prize for “his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples,” which is something that will never be said about Trump.
Trump’s Nobel participation trophy is just the latest manifestation of the dizzying array of ways that Trump has failed to measure up to Obama. The two men are forever tied to one another after Trump transitioned from the host of “The Celebrity Apprentice” into a political figure by promoting the racist and false birther conspiracy theory.
In a 2011 hilarious speech delivered at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, Obama famously mocked Trump—to his face—over his conspiracies. To add insult to injury, Obama delivered the speech while Seal Team Six was executing his orders to kill Osama bin Laden. The speech supposedly motivated Trump to run for office, and while he was successful even his victories have lagged behind Obama.
In this April 30, 2016 file photo, President Barack Obama speaks at the annual White House Correspondents' Association dinner at the Washington Hilton in Washington.
Trump won the Electoral College in the 2016 election, defeating former Sec. Hillary Clinton. But Trump lost the popular vote to Clinton by nearly 3 million votes. By contrast, in his first time running for president Obama defeated Sen. John McCain in 2008 by 192 in the Electoral College and by nearly 10 million votes in the popular vote.
Trump began his first term with a massive lie, as then-White House press secretary Sean Spicer laughably claimed Trump had the “largest audience to witness an inauguration, period.” Politifact rated the claim their lowest possible rating of “pants on fire,” noting, “His overall assertion that Trump’s inaugural drew the ‘largest audience’ ever is flat-out wrong.”
In 2020, Trump lost his bid for reelection to President Joe Biden, who won both the Electoral College and popular vote. Unlike Trump, Obama won his reelection campaign in 2012 when he handily defeated Mitt Romney.
Trump finally won both the Electoral College and popular vote in the 2024 election—but in victory he still underperformed Obama. In fact, Trump’s 2024 popular vote margin of 1.5 percentage points is one of the smallest in over 200 years of American presidential electoral history. By contrast, Obama had bigger margins in 2008 (7.2%) and 2012 (3.7%). Trump’s margin is also smaller than Biden’s (4.5%), and George W. Bush’s 2004 performance (2.4%).
Obama also trumps Trump when it comes to public approval. According to Gallup, Trump had an average approval rating of 41.1% during his first term. For Obama, the average was 47.9% approval. In fact, Trump has the lowest average approval rating of every president who has served in the 21st century, ranking below Clinton, Bush, Biden, and Obama. In his second term, Trump is already underwater on approval and continuing to sink in his first year back.
Nearly a decade after his last day in office, Trump remains obsessed with Obama—even asserting last month that he is healthier than Obama “by far”—but by every objective measure he falls short.
There aren’t enough Nobel participation trophies available to compensate for the gap between the two men.
