Talkin' About....Two Stupid Questions About Donald Trump

Two questions about Donald Trump on my Quora feed:

1. Should Donald Trump win the Nobel Peace Prize?

Why? What has Donald Trump done to merit the Nobel Peace Prize?

What, did I hear you say “He got the two Koreas to talk and declare that they are ending the Korean War after 65 years…”?

Although it is true that the President will get some reluctant brownie points from me for agreeing to talk to North Korea’s dictator Kim Jung Un in the not-too-distant future, I don’t believe that Trump’s name-calling and threats against North Korea were the catalyst for the thaw between the isolated Communist North and the more democratic, dynamic South.

I believe that other factors were involved in the North’s sudden decision to stop testing nuclear weapons and begin negotiations with the South.

1. Their nuclear weapons testing ground collapsed, prompting fears of the effects of nuclear radiation and the resulting damage to the environment in a small country like North Korea. The regime will probably find another site for testing, but for now…..
2. The South made the first peace overtures by inviting several North Korean dignitaries to the recent Winter Olympics
3. China and Russia, North Korea’s closest benefactors, probably pressured Kim to ease tensions in Northeast Asia

So, no. Trump should not win the Nobel Peace Prize. The i’s are not dotted and the t’s are not crossed in any peace treaty yet, and the North Koreans have not publicly said if they will give up their nuclear arsenal.

For the record, I do not think that U.S. Presidents should be awarded Nobel Peace Prizes. Theodore Roosevelt received one for supposedly settling the Russo-Japanese War with the Treaty of Portsmouth. Japan’s reaction to that treaty was, shall we say, not good. Most Japanese at the time believed that America was trying to inhibit their Imperial expansion in Asia - the Yamato people’s manifest destiny, if you will. This resentment festered and eventually exploded in 1941 with Japan’s decision to go to war with the U.S. and the subsequent attack on Pearl Harbor.

As for President Obama’s 2009 Nobel: Norway was engaging in “wishful thinking” when they decided to award the Peace Prize to a President who had intentions to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan but, as we know, could not quite deliver.

2. Is it possible for Donald Trump to profit monetarily from the vast amount of books written about him since he began his presidency?

Um, no. That’s not the way it works, kemosabe.

The only way that President Trump would make any royalties from a book written about him is if he published his memoirs (co-written with a professional writer a la The Art of the Deal) after his term in office ends.

He can’t, however, make any money from any book about him, though. Only the authors and publishers of those works earn the income from book sales. They did the work, not Trump.