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President Donald Trump knows he’s receiving tons of praise, and even Nobel Peace Prize buzz, for his diplomatic overtures toward North Korea.
But he wants you to know that’s not what he cares most about. No, he wants something more than that.
“The prize I want is victory for the world,” the president told reporters at the White House on Wednesday.
Asked if he thought he deserved the Nobel, Trump smiled and, as humbly as he could, sidestepped the question: “Everyone thinks so, but I would never say it.”
There’s a case to make for awarding Trump the prize. Trump’s “maximum pressure and engagement” campaign to force North Korea to come to the negotiating table over its nuclear and ballistic missile programs has had some success.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has come in from the cold, meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping twice, attending a historic summit with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, and planning to sit down for a face-to-face meeting with Trump in a month.
North Korea also just released three American hostages who had been held in the country’s brutal labor camps for months — and in one case, two years.
But whether all that ultimately brings “victory for the world,” or even just a nuclear agreement, remains to be seen.
Watch Trump’s comments here:
Does Pres. Trump deserve the Nobel Prize? "Everyone thinks so, but I would never say it," Pres. Trump says.
— Evan McMurry (@evanmcmurry) May 9, 2018
"The prize I want is victory for the world." https://t.co/dMeVjlPoyT pic.twitter.com/6a0uOA1Fkn