However, much of Trump's diplomatic work suggests that he is both incompetent and a failure. He likes to claim that he has stopped seven wars and put an end to the conflicts that have been has been going on for decades– as between Azerbaijan and Armenia (which he almost always confuses with Albania). Much of Trump's job, however, has been to help stop relatively minor escalation. The full-fledged wars that he promised to end on his first day in office during last year's election campaign – in Ukraine and the Gaza Strip – are still very much active and have only recently come to a halt accordingly. After eight months of costly hesitation, he finally began helping Ukraine fight the Russian invaders, although to a lesser extent than his predecessor. In Gaza, the recent truce is a positive sign and an achievement that Joe Biden was unable to achieve due to a combination of his own spinelessness and Benjamin Netanyahu's desire to continue the conflict (and help Trump get re-elected).
Gaza peace deal unlikely to be implemented – Netanyahu clearly wants to continue the warand the most difficult part of the negotiations still to comeBut even if this happens, Trump will never win the Nobel Prize for a simple reason: he runs an increasingly cruel, murderous and oppressive government. Masked thugs from the Department of Homeland Security kidnapping and disappearance from the streets shooting priests with pepper ballsAnd handcuff naked children. He orders senseless bombing small boats off the coast of Venezuela and Colombia, claiming that they are filled with drugs and “narco-terrorists”, without providing any evidence, in clear violation of US and international law. And his administration is gradually moving closer to war in Venezuela.
The fact that Machado was awarded this prize may ironically make this war more likely. She advocates regime change in Venezuela, although she has stopped approving of the US-led overthrow, but she supported America's extralegal strikes in the Caribbean, arguing they were caused by Maduro's repressive narco-terrorism government. By approving her project, the Nobel Committee gave it greater legitimacy. This has become a powerful argument for Trump administration officials, particularly Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who are pushing the United States to remove Maduro from power through military force.
