This is how Professor Trump explains the “Obama complex”

The winner of the Nobel Peace Prize was announced on Friday: the president of the United States, Donald Trump, has long behaved as if he had won it. Trump was nominated by Christian Tybring-Gjedde in September, and he has used the nomination for all it is worth.

– I don’t have media coverage. I was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize, a Peace Prize, a Nobel nomination. And the media didn’t cover it, the president noted during an election campaign rally in Ohio last month.

He then shot his predecessor, who won the Peace Prize.

– When Barack Hussein Obama was nominated, he didn’t even know why he got the nomination. He did nothing and was nominated. It was the largest press report I have ever seen, Trump said resignedly.

– Very jealous

There are more than Trump who criticize that Obama was awarded the Peace Prize in 2009, something that former head of the Nobel Institute Geir Lundestad knows all about. Lundestad believes that Trump is more than hung up on his predecessor and accuses the president of having an “Obama complex.”

– He’s very jealous. It started around the first day he was elected, when he said it was the largest crowd ever to be at an opening ceremony. It was just going back four years, so you saw the Obama photos and there were many more, says Lundestad.

Lundestad is a professor of history and one of the leading Norwegian experts in the United States. He believes that Trump was one of many Americans who were shocked by Obama’s election victory in 2008.

– That a black man could be elected president of the United States was a shock for many, also for Donald Trump, says Lundestad.

Trump began his political career by claiming that Obama was born in Kenya and therefore unqualified to be president. The conspiracy theory was dismissed as racist.

– He sent expedition after expedition to Kenya to investigate, but they found nothing, laughs Lundestad.

He believes that Trump is determined to reverse his predecessor’s policies, particularly with a focus on one area.

– In one area after another, it is important to get rid of Obama’s legacy, this is especially true when it comes to health reform, says the professor.

Triumphs and recessions

Trump was nominated for his contribution to normalizing conditions in the Middle East. Lundestad agrees that the president deserves praise for his efforts.

– You have made a useful contribution to the relationship between Israel, the Emirates and Bahrain. But this is not the core of the Middle East conflict, it is only on the periphery, says Lundestad.

There, too, the praise of Lundestad ends, who believes that several of the president’s peace attempts have been a direct failure.

– Most of what he has assimilated has gone completely wrong, says the professor. It particularly points to Trump’s attempt at nuclear disarmament in North Korea as a mistake.

– Already after the first meeting, he declared that this had been achieved. North Korea now has more nuclear weapons than ever. This was a total failure, Lundestad believes.

Defend the Obama award

Lundestad joined the Nobel Institute in 2014, after almost 25 years as director. It says Obama received the controversial award in 2009 because the former president’s values ​​were identical to those of the Nobel Committee.

– Obama was in favor of international cooperation, for the disarmament of nuclear weapons, he was in favor of democracy and human rights and a completely new climate policy. All of this is in stark contrast to everything Trump stands for, says Lundestad.

The professor dismisses Trump’s chances of winning, but emphasizes that all nominations are treated equally by the Nobel Committee.

– Of course they treat him like everyone else. You look at the proposals that come in, and if someone suggests Trump, they end up on the list. I doubt that long statements are needed to know what Trump has done and what he has not done for peace. When you have 300 candidates, it is clear that not everyone can be treated with the same thoroughness, says Lundestad.