It has been no secret that President Donald Trump would like to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.
In fact, one is within has grasp. The only problem is it belongs to former President Theodore Roosevelt, The Hill reported.
Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton said Monday he was “always worried” Trump would take Roosevelt’s medal which is on display in the White House.
“Theodore Roosevelt’s Nobel medallion hangs on the wall of the Roosevelt Room in the White House. I was always worried he would grab that if he can’t get another one,” Bolton told host Erin Burnett on CNN’s “OutFront.”
Roosevelt won the prize in 1906 for his work in bringing an end to the Russo-Japanese War.
Trump himself has claimed to have ended at least eight wars. He had also criticized the Nobel committee.
Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado said she would be willing to give the award she won in October to Trump after the U.S. capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife to face narcoterrorism charges.
“I certainly would love to be able to personally tell him that we believe — the Venezuelan people, because this is a prize of the Venezuelan people, want to give it to him and share it with him,” Machado said on Fox News’s “Hannity.”
But the Norwegian Nobel Institute said not so fast.
It said the Nobel Prize cannot be “revoked, shared or transferred to others,” once announced.
The president has said it would be a “great honor” to accept the award from Machado.
The two are scheduled to meet this week in Washington, D.C.
Trump has said Machado does not have the support or respect to lead her Venezuela.
He has backed Delcy Rodríguez, Maduro’s vice president, who is now acting president.
Bolton said Trump not supporting Machado was a “huge mistake.”
“She is the legitimate government of Venezuela,” he said. “That’s what underlies the legitimacy of Trump’s removing Maduro. So, when he threw her aside last Saturday night, it was a huge mistake on his part both in terms of the legitimacy of what the U.S. had done and the potential future in Venezuela.”
Trump has remained vigilant in his stance that he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize.
“I can’t think of anybody in history that should get the Nobel Prize more than me. And I don’t want to be bragging, but nobody else settled wars,” Trump said.
Bolton has backed the U.S. involvement in Venezuela. But he said Trump is out for Trump.
Trump “cares less about Venezuela than he does the prize.”
“Look, it’s always about Trump,” he said. “And by the way, she can give him the medallion and still keep the prize if that’s what he wants.”
“She can probably find a replacement somewhere, but the real point is he doesn’t seem to understand the way Venezuela works,” Bolton said. “We have the coercive power in place in the Caribbean right now to complete the regime change, and her legitimacy comes as the leader of the opposition even though Maduro or a Venezuelan court blocked her from being a candidate.”
