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Credit where credit is due. President Donald Trump saw Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu weakened and diplomatically isolated after the prime minister broke all diplomatic norms and launched a widely condemned missile strike to assassinate Hamas’ peace negotiators in neutral Qatar last month. The president skillfully leveraged the moment to strongarm the Israeli leader into agreeing to his calls for a ceasefire agreement with Hamas. As a result, Trump’s supporters felt he deserved the Nobel Peace Prize and raged with fury when he did not receive it on Oct. 10. 

And lest there be any doubts over who should have received the prize, Trump has modestly declared on multiple occasions “I deserve it.” To advance his hard-to-swallow claim of deserving it by solving approximately “one war per month” since taking office, he has suggested that he brokered a ceasefire between Pakistan and India, a claim both parties in the conflict reject, and he has even claimed to have brought peace to “Albania” and Azerbaijan. The fact that it was not the Balkan nation of Albania, but the Caucasian Mountain realm of Armenia, shows how personally involved the president was in efforts to end that conflict.

When the Nobel Peace Prize Committee announced that a courageous Venezuelan human rights and democracy defender named Maria Corina Corchado, who has risked her life to run as a presidential candidate against the murderous, anti-democracy Maduro regime (which is hunting her with death squads), Trump made it all about himself and declared that the winner told him “I am accepting this in honor for you.”

Trump’s openly ridiculed by world leaders efforts to claim the prize aside, his divisive and warlike actions on the home front preclude him from being the Nobel Prize recipient. His presidencies have been defined by troubling images that the Nobel Peace Committee had to have been aware of. In his first presidency, his administration was defined for many by disturbing images of migrant families, including newborn infants, being brutally separated from one another and imprisoned in cages. The optics from this internationally condemned human rights catastrophe were terrible and drove Pope Francis to condemn Trump’s inhumane immigrant policies. And the most indelible and lasting images of Trump’s first presidency were of a mob he incited brutally attacking the Capitol police on Jan. 6 to overturn the election results.

Flash forward to Trump’s second presidency and the images of caged humans have been replaced by disturbing new images of war on the streets of America. Photos of troops battling with protesters in towns like L.A. who see the soldiers as occupiers resemble those from unstable Third World dictatorships. And the president’s increasing demonization of Democrats, including his foes the mayor of Chicago and governor of Illinois, who he just announced he wants jailed, hardly represent the actions of a visionary unifier, human rights activist, and peacemaker. Nor does his tariff wars against close allies like the E.U., calls to use military force to annex Greenland from Denmark, and to forcefully annex our neighbor Canada as America’s “51st state.”

The president’s warlike and incendiary rhetoric reached fever pitch when he recently defended the deployment of U.S. National Guard members in Democrat cities telling an audience of generals in Quantico, Virginia, that the troops would be used against the “enemy within.” He stunned the room full of silent military leaders, who are sworn to defend the Constitution not the president, by stating, “This is going to be a big thing for the people in this room, because it’s the enemy from within, and we have to handle it before it gets out of control.” 

But Trump’s most worrying comments came when he said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth “should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military (emphasis mine).” Trump also flirted with having the newly renamed Department of War deploy what he referred to in deliberately antagonizing terms as the “N-word.” Lest one think the president is referring to that N-word[, he] was referencing nuclear weapons. None of this is a good look for a man trying to present himself as a peace activist. 

While creating a ceasefire in foreign lands and freeing hostages is commendable, creating real and lasting peace begins at home. Until Trump stops demonizing his opponents and threatening them and allied nations like Canada and Denmark with war, he will never be a viable candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Brian Glyn Williams is professor of Islamic History at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth and author of the fieldwork-based “Counter Jihad. The American Military Experience in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria.”  

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19 replies on “Opinion: For Trump, creating lasting peace should begin at home”

  1. Only on the New Bedford Light, worst opinion piece yet, nothing more than Far Left Liberal nonsense, time to open your eyes, and stop drinking the Kool-Aid.

    1. One of the first things this administration did after taking office was to fire the Pentagon Justice Advocate Generals, the officers who advise the Pentagon officers about whether or not a military policy or action is lawful under our Constitution. These Pentagon officers then order the officers and troops down the chain of command.

      Our leaders take an oath to protect and defend our Constitution. They should want military advisers who are legal experts in constitutional law advising them about what is a legal order and what is not.

      WHY did this administration prioritize firing these Pentagon legal advisors to our generals and admirals?

      Several months later, we are finding out why. Our Secretary of Defense and our President are telling us why by saying the new mission of our military is to be more aggressive and to confront the “enemy within”, with references to groups that oppose this administrations policies. No more ” rules of engagement” !

      These groups the military is being told to target are not the “enemy within” or “communists” or “terrorists”. They are not “antifa” ! (Many of them are “grantifa “, grandmothers against Facism). They want their children and grandchildren to have the protections and rights of our Constitution: due process, freedoms of speech, freedom of the press, and the rights to lawfully assemble and to dissent against government injustice.

      This administration swore an oath to protect and defend our rights under our Constitution, but they have violated these rights since taking power in January.

      When people show you who they are, believe them.

      1. Repeat, repeat, repeat, your opinion is not gospel, and their are many Americans that disagree. Stop writing bibles, everyone knows it’s the same old far left radical liberal nonsense, time to take a break already.

          1. It all BS and a complete joke after four years of Merrick Garland. You talk a good game about free speech, but if anyone opposes your view there 100% wrong, and the comments go on like a broken record. No one should be writing ” Peace Be With You ” if they don’t really mean it. This is it, the last response. and I am 100% done with our tit for tat.

        2. Like we don’t agree with you, repeat, repeat, repeat. Get the message. People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw rocks!

  3. Nostalgic for the little red book era of Brian Glyn Williams in the standard times saying that Colin powell made a causus belli – case for the Iraq war. Or when he praised Afghan warlords. All of which was about as accurate as thinking there’s a ceasfire in Gaza.

  4. María Corina Machado did actually publicly thank Trump and say he deserves a Nobel Peace Prize. They are allies in a longstanding tradition of US-backed regime change under the guise of “democracy” that isn’t about liberating people, but exploiting and privatizing their land’s natural resources for the financial gain of a select few.

  5. Not to mention the Venezuela drug boat strikes. A peace President would seize the boats, try the individuals in a court of law, and stop the influx of drugs in a just manner. This administration delights in “blowing the boats out of the water.”

    1. Yes, and the 4 star admiral of the US Southern Command in charge of the Venezuela “drug boat” bombings has unexpectedly resigned. He has not given a reason.

      https://www.npr.org/2025/10/17/nx-s1-5577626/us-commander-southern-command-venezuela-retire

      When the Secretary of Defense gathered 800 of our top military generals and admirals, he told them they could resign if they were unhappy with the proposed changes in the mission of the “Department of War”. These officers face a reduction in rank and pension as well as being fired if they refuse to carry out an unlawful military order. Those who have attended West Point and our other military academies know their duty to protect and defend the Constitution. They are being tested now.

      To me, it seems like a kind of extortion not unlike what has happened to universities and other institutions. The choice is: Do what I want, (even though it is unconstitutional)—

      -Or I will take a way your promotions and corresponding pension benefits and fire you.

      -Or I will take away your grant money for scientific and medical research.

      -Or I will not grant government permission for your media merger if you don’t cancel Kimmel…etc

      -Or I will deny access to government buildings and courts to your lawyers who are defending the people I am targeting

      -Or I will deny your newspaper reporters access to the Pentagon

      All of these violate the Constitution and laws passed by Congress.

      Now, we are being told by the President that he can use the Insurrection Act to send troops to San Francisco. To my knowledge, local law enforcement did not need to arrest anyone for protest related activity in any of the cities where protests were held. The protests were a peaceful and constitutional right.

      If we don’t use our rights, we will lose our rights!

  6. Trump isn’t exciting violence, the far left militant groups funded by billionaires such as George Soros and others who use the funding as a tax loophole. SHAMEFUL.

  7. Howland, thanks for bringing us back to Colin Powell’s infamous speech to the U.N. where he made the flawed case for war against Iraq in search of weapons of mass destruction. I criticized it in February 2003 and claimed it was a bogus casus belli on numerous occasions including in local papers at the time. I took heat for my criticism of the Bush Cheney pretext for war back then, but feel vindicated in my call (and Trump would agree).
    As for my work on the ground in Afghanistan for U.S. agencies and later with the U.S. Army, I stand by my fieldwork findings that disarming pro-American Afghan warlords like my friend General Dostum (who appears in the movie 12 Strong and my book The Last Warlord) was a huge mistake. It left all the weapons in one basket, the corrupt Afghan Army which defected to the Taliban and betrayed their country, America and the pro American Uzbek Mongols like Dostum who warned us this would happen. Again I stand by my warning .

  8. Jane Constant, Thank you for your well articulated comments. And, Jeff Rogers, if that is you real name, please save your “it’s the far left’s fault” comments…we have a federal administration in place right now that is bolstering “far right” sentiments to fund his and his 1% cronies’ bank accounts. It’s unconscionable and OUTRAGEOUS!

  9. We can get through this if we pull together.

    For a weekly list of activities we might take, please go to this site and bookmark it. Please share it with your loved ones and friends. Check it each Wednesday for activities that might fit your schedule, and abilities. There are workshops on non-violence and de-escalation and different activities every week.

    What’s Next No Kings?

    We can’t do everything but we can each do something to bring about positive change. Peace be with you and…

    Keep hope alive!

  10. Yout opnion, many of us think the 47th President is doing a great job (so much better than Biden).

  11. After US planes bombed ten “drug boats” claiming they were Venezuelan cartel drug smugglers, the President has ordered an aircraft carrier and several battleships to the coast of Venezuela. Declaring war is a constitutional power of the Congress but the President did not get congressional approval.

    Over forty people have been killed in international waters by US bombs, and two survivors have been returned to their home countries without being charged. Since there has been no declaration of war, those killed are not legally enemy combatants. We do not know who these people really are, and they have not had due process before being executed.

    Extrajudicial killings usually take place in authoritarian countries. We do not expect to see them in democracies or democratic republics based on the rule of law. There is a legal process that could have been followed, but this administration has ignored it. These extrajudicial killings are also violations of international law.

    U.S. deploys aircraft carrier to waters off South America in major military escalation

    https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/u-s-deploys-aircraft-carrier-to-waters-off-south-america-in-major-military-escalation

  12. Supporting the destruction of every drug running boat that will stop illegal drugs from reaching our cities and towns and killing the youth of our country. Americans are so happy that we finally have a President that is taking action and trying to save our country from Countries that support these Drug Cartels who are nothing more than disgusting terrorist regimes.

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