Commentary by Stephen Macaulay
The first-ever “FIFA Peace Prize-Football Unites the World” award winner Donald J. Trump is a man who seems to be getting to that “Hey, you! Get off of my lawn!” stage of life.
On Wednesday, July 1, during a game between the USA and Bosnia and Herzegovina, USA striker Folarin Balogun, who happens to be a US citizen through the 14th Amendment, something which Trump is opposed to, received a red card for a foul. A red card means the player is ejected from the game and is suspended for at least the next game.
That suspension was troublesome for the US team as Balogun is the premier player for the squad. He had scored three goals in the World Cup tournament games he participated in, which may not sound like much, but that is a big number in the sport.
So without Balogun, things seemed dire for the US team, which was to go up against Belgium.
Ever the diplomat, Trump got on the phone with FIFA President Gianni Infantino . . . the man who happened to give Trump the FIFA Peace Prize.
Who cares if there are rules?
Balogun was reinstated.
Belgium won the game by a commanding 4 to 1.
Balogun didn’t score that single US goal.
One week later, our very own presidential diplomat was back at it, but this time more in what is ostensibly his wheelhouse.
While attending the NATO summit in Turkey, he said this about the Iranian people that the US is negotiating with to end the war in Iran: “I don’t want to deal with them anymore — they’re scum. You know what scum is? They’re scum. They’re sick people. They’re led by sick people. And they’re vicious, violent people.”
He went on to say:
- “it’s just a waste of time dealing with them”
- “They’re liars”
- “There’s something wrong with them”
- “They’re cuckoo”
When Infantino presented Trump with the “FIFA Peace Prize” at what was still then the Kennedy Center, renamed a couple weeks later before that switch was found to be breaking the rules, he said: “This is what we want from a leader. A leader that cares about the people. We want to live in a safe world, in a safe environment. We want to unite — that’s what we do here today, that’s what we’ll do at the World Cup, Mr. President.”
Yes, a leader who cares by insulting people that the country needs to come to an agreement with, unless, of course, he goes back to his “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again” mode.
While he claims he is making it a “safe world” by going to war with Iran to keep it from developing a nuclear weapon, providing no evidence that that was, to use one of his metaphors, in the cards, odds are he is making the world less safe by treating the Iranians the way he is.
Let’s never forget that the 9/11 hijackers used only box cutters and pocket knives, not nuclear weapons, to cause the deaths and create the devastation in New York and Washington.
And let us also not forget that for the first and only time in the history of the NATO alliance Article 5 was invoked on behalf of the US. That part of the organization’s treaty says an attack on one NATO member is considered an attack on all. These are rules people abide by.
So Trump goes to the NATO summit and says:
“Greenland is very important for the US, but it’s not important for Denmark,” again threatening the sovereign territory of a US ally.
It would be better for all of us if this “FIFA Peace Prize” winner stuck to soccer.
Macaulay is pundit-at-large for The Hustings.