Does homelessness stop Trump getting the Nobel Prize?

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Lurking somewhere in the back of my mind is a vague recollection of a TV series fronted by James Burke back in the 1980s in which he explained how a change – sometimes quite a small change – in one factor could lead to large changes in apparently unrelated fields. Or maybe that rogue memory is based on one of Douglas Adams’ books: he was, as I recall, something of a proponent of the idea of the interconnectedness of everything. In any event, it set me to wondering whether Trump’s clampdown on homelessness and crime – the scale of which is, in his vivid imagination, enormous – in Washington DC is related to his overwhelming desire to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Bear with me here.

We know that he strongly believes that he is entitled to the award, and cannot tolerate the fact that Obama was given one and he has not been. The desire runs to extreme lengths, with reports today that he personally phoned the Norwegian Finance Minister, as the latter was going about his business on the streets of Oslo, to tell him that he wanted the prize. Just for good measure, he also discussed possible tariffs. No connection between the two things I’m sure, and certainly not a case of ‘nice country you’ve got there; shame if anything bad happened to it’. Maybe.

We also know that he seriously believes that bombing Iran was what ended the brief war with Israel and should therefore be counted as part of his record of bringing peace to troubled places. And we know, because he’s told us, repeatedly, that he is the only man who can end the Russia Ukraine war, and that he stands a 75% chance of doing just that in Alaska today. I hesitate to make such a wild claim, but it is at least possible that he has enough self-awareness to know that pulling off such a deal might just improve his chances of being invited to Oslo. But one of the obstacles to such a deal is, in his view, whether and to what extent Putin respects both Trump and the US. An objective observer might see that as problematic, given that Putin seemingly respects almost no-one, but I’m sure that it doesn’t look that way to Trump.

And that brings us back to the imagined disaster zone as which Trump sees Washington DC. He’s already told us that the rest of the world disrespects the US because of the dirt, crime and homelessness which exists in defiant denial of all statistical evidence to the contrary, and that he’s going to clean up the imaginary mess in order to earn back that respect. The route to winning his much-coveted prize therefore runs through deploying the National Guard to bulldoze homelessness camps, deport anyone who he doesn’t like the look of, and clear the slums. I realise that there is a danger in making his acts look almost rational, but it’s an explanation which might actually be closer to the truth than anything else.