Stuck in a van while the president measures the Kennedy Center drapes: Inside Trump’s day of ego boosting as crises loom
Donald Trump grinned from ear to ear as he took the gold medal that had been offered to him and placed it around his own neck.
He had finally claimed his peace prize.
Not the Nobel Peace Prize, mind you. Trump didn’t win that one this year, despite openly campaigning for it since returning to power ten months ago and embarking on a non-stop series of peace overtures meant to bring about the end to long-running, if obscure, world conflicts.
Instead, he had strode onto the stage at the Kennedy Center Opera House to accept an entirely new honor that had been made up by the head of the world soccer governing body after he was snubbed by the Swedish Nobel Committee in favor of Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado.
It was the FIFA Peace Prize, which the international football association had never awarded in its 121-year history, that Trump was there to accept at the start of a star-studded ceremony to determine the draw for the quadrennial tournament, which the U.S. will jointly host with Canada and Mexico next year.
Infantino, who has become an inexplicably constant presence in the Oval Office over the last ten months, praised Trump as “a dynamic leader who has engaged in diplomatic efforts that created opportunities for dialogue de-escalation and stability” before awarding him the large gold trophy and the gold medal he now wore proudly as he basked in applause from the crowd of football-related bigwigs.
Trump then participated in an ersatz draw ceremony alongside Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, with whom he was later seen laughing and clapping in the presidential box as the draw continued in earnest.
Your correspondent, who was there to witness the goings-on in Washington as The Independent took its’ turn in the White House press pool rotation, packed up and joined colleagues from Agence France-Presse, NPR and other outlets as we made our way down to the first level of the Kennedy Center building to head back to the White House, where the president was set to resume his day, presumably attending to matters of state.
But it was not to be.
Instead, we were informed that Trump was having a good time and wanted to stay longer.
And stay he did.
He returned to the presidential box in the Opera House, where he, Carney and Sheinbaum took in the splendid scene of the FIFA World Cup draw hosted by Kevin Hart and Heidi Klum.
He watched as ex-British footballer Rio Ferdinand, ex-hockey great Wayne Gretzky, basketball icon turned ubiquitous pitchman Shaquille O’Neal and baseball star Aaron Judge — plus former NFL quarterback Tom Brady — drew balls with little pieces of paper in them to set the field for next year’s tournament.
And all eyes were on Trump several hours later as the ceremonies wrapped with a performance by one of his faves, The Village People, whose iconic gay anthem YMCA has been the traditional closing song at Trump events since a series of rallies he held to drum up support for his effort to remain in office after losing the 2020 election.
