Donald Trump Gets A Knock-Off Peace Prize As FIFA Boss Plays Into His Gigantic Ego

Only four presidents have won the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize; spoiler alert, Donald Trump isn't one of them. Trump was campaigning to get the award this year; however, it went to María Corina Machado, leader of the Venezuelan opposition party. That was announced on October 10. FIFA, the global governing body for soccer, announced the creation of the "FIFA Peace Prize – Football Unites the World" the following month. At the time, people predicted that they would be giving it to Trump, and they were right. At the FIFA World Cup team draw at the Kennedy Center on December 5, FIFA president Gianni Infantino announced that Trump was the winner. Given the size of Trump's ego, we're sure that he feels it's well deserved. And yet, if social media is any indication, he might be the only one.

PEACE PRESIDENT. 🕊️@FIFAWorldCup President Gianni Infantino awards President Donald J. Trump the inaugural 2025 FIFA Peace Prize, dedicated to an individual who achieved exceptional and extraordinary action to promote peace and unity around the world. 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/mfKKDb9w59

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) December 5, 2025

One person called the whole thing: "disgusting. FIFA should be non-political. This award is nonsense & disgraceful," via X. Another posted: "So he won a totally made up award. Excellent. My 4 year old son [has] a participation trophy too." Others are waiting to see what "Saturday Night Live" does with the whole thing or perhaps "South Park"; both shows have come after Trump during his second term.

And one critic thought it spoke volumes to Trump's priorities and self-awareness. "No one with any intelligence or sense of dignity would believe this is a real award and accept it proudly," per X. When Trump received the award, he said, "This is truly one of the great honors of my life," via USA Today.

We're not sure we follow the logic of either the award being made by FIFA, which again, is a soccer governing body, or why it would be given to Donald Trump. But it's not a huge surprise. Infantino supported Donald Trump's bid to win a Nobel Peace Prize, so we're not sure that it could plausibly be just a coincidence that FIFA made their own peace prize this year. Perhaps Gianni Infantino noticed just how happy the attention seeking Trump was on stage at the FIFA World Cup Final (and couldn't take the hint to leave), so he wanted to make sure that Trump got his moment in the sun.

Some think that Infantino needs to stay on Trump's good side with the 2026 World Cup being held in North America, and most of the games being held in the U.S. Along with awarding Trump a definitely not at all made-up-just-for-him award, FIFA has maintained office space in New York City's Trump Tower, and Infantino attended Trump's inauguration. 

Trump has enacted a travel ban on some international visitors, though he's said that those officially connected to the World Cup events, including players, coaches, and their families, wouldn't be impacted. And some people have theorized that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) might come after fans, so it would make sense that keeping Trump happy would be a big part of running the event smoothly.