"To the surprise of no one, Donald Trump won the inaugural Fifa peace prize on Friday at a cheesy, gaudy and gauche World Cup draw expertly designed to flatter the world's most precious ego. This is your prize this is your peace prize! gushed Gianni Infantino, the bald-headed Fifa president, after Trump took the stage at the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in snowy Washington."
"There on a plinth, with Donald J Trump emblazoned on it in capital letters, was the uncoveted trophy: a golden globe resting on five golden hands big enough to compensate any tiny-handed recipient feeling sore about the Nobel peace prize. But wait, there was more. There is also a beautiful medal for you that you can wear everywhere you want to go, added Infantino, knowing that with Trump there is no such thing as too much."
"Foreign leaders such as Keir Starmer and Benjamin Netanyahu have learned over the past year that flattering Trump is like feeding gold candy to a baby. The more blatant and obvious, the better it works. Now, thanks to Infantino, Trump was centre-stage at world sport's greatest spectacle. History sure does rhyme. Benito Mussolini used the 1934 World Cup in Italy to promote a resurgent Roman empire. Before every match, the Italian team performed the Roman salute."
Donald Trump accepted the inaugural FIFA peace prize at a World Cup draw in Washington, presented by Gianni Infantino. The presentation included an ostentatious golden trophy bearing "Donald J Trump" and a medallion, accompanied by lavish public praise. Trump eagerly donned the medal and called the award one of the great honours of his life. The ceremony was framed as a rebuke to institutions that had snubbed him and as an exercise in spectacle and flatter. The episode drew comparisons between modern political pageantry and historical uses of sport for propaganda, such as Mussolini's 1934 World Cup.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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