US President Donald Trump received a newly created peace prize from the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) during its 2026 World Cup Draw at the Kennedy Center in Washington on Friday.
As per AFP, Trump has said that he deserves a Nobel peace prize on several occasions, incorrectly claiming to have ended eight conflicts this year alone. Last month, however, the Nobel Committee instead awarded the Nobel peace prize to Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado.
The FIFA decision may have gone some way to assuaging the 79-year-old US president’s disappointment. Trump said that receiving the award was “truly one of the great honors of my life.”
“And beyond awards, Gianni [Infantino – FIFA head] and I were discussing this, we saved millions and millions of lives,” he added.
The criteria for winning the award are unclear, particularly as no other person has ever won it. The prize – intended to recognize people who are a source of “hope for future generations” – was first announced only after the Nobel peace prize was awarded to Machado in November.
As per AFP, Infantino – a Trump ally – said that Trump’s “exceptional and extraordinary” actions to promote peace and unity around the world won him the award.
Miguel Maduro, a former head of governance at FIFA, told the New York Times that Infantino’s praise of Trump went too far.
“That is clearly, in my view, a violation of the duty of political neutrality imposed by FIFA’s code of ethics,” Maduro said.
It is not clear whether Trump’s efforts to negotiate an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine were taken into account by FIFA when they awarded him the prize.
On Nov. 18, the first details of a 28-point “peace plan” drafted by US and Russian officials leaked to the press. In its original form, it would have seen Ukraine cede territory that Russia has so far proved unable to win on the battlefield, limit the size of its armed forces, and forswear NATO membership.
Earlier this week, Trump envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner traveled to Moscow to discuss a version of the plan which had been revised to be less unilaterally favorable to Russia with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Despite two weeks of frantic diplomacy in the run-up to Witkoff and Kushner’s arrival in Moscow, no concrete progress appears to have come of the meeting so far.