How Trump’s fake Nobel Prize and other sycophantic nonsense can help explain Iran War propaganda
Our is an era of cheap virtue and phony accolades. We slap gold paint on an ass and call it a lion. But the gilding wears thin. And braying is not roaring, despite propaganda to the contrary. Faux honor has always been for sale. Wealthy poseurs purchase pardons and prizes. We confuse a reputation for courage with the real thing. And obnoxious fools attract more attention than modest sages.
The problem of fake virtue is a central theme of Plato’s work. In Protagoras, Plato noted that it is easy to mistake delusional confidence for courage. The masses are quick to believe that raging madmen are valiant. The Bible’s book of Proverbs offers an extended meditation on the follies of humankind. Proverbs reminds us that wine and liquor beget false courage, and that foolishness leads to ruin. The ancient solution is justice, moderation, integrity, and truth.
Propaganda and Armageddon
I began thinking about this topic when President Trump got his hands on a Nobel Peace Prize. Then the President began expressing his desire to receive a Congressional Medal of Honor. And now a White House webpage exalts the President’s decision to wage war on Iran with dozens of quotes extolling the President’s courage and wisdom. That page cites Senators, Congressmen, and pundits who celebrate Trump’s war with fantastic praise.
For example, the White House quotes a commentator name Marc Thiessen who said on Twitter:
Donald Trump has just taken his place alongside Reagan & FDR as one of the most consequential presidents in American history. Many have occupied his office, but there are only a handful whose courageous leadership has quite literally reshaped the world. There will be statues of him from Caracas to Tehran. He is, as we speak, assuming his place in the pantheon of our nation’s greatest leaders
This embellished bloviation is bizarre. So too is the fact that the White House has reposted this sycophantic phooey on an official government website. We don’t know how any of Trump’s wars will turn out. And this President may be remembered more as a scoundrel than a saint.
Wars are not won by propaganda. The fog of war obscures much. So it was disturbing to hear the Secretary of Defense proclaim after just a few days of war, “America is winning decisively, devastatingly and without mercy.” In truth, however, history takes a long time to write. It wise to avoid jumping to conclusions about decisive victory. And morality recommends mercy over devastation.
Trumpian propaganda extends beyond claims about merciless courage toward assertions about the holiness of Trump’s Iran war. It was recently reported that some soldiers claim this is a religious war and that Donald Trump is “anointed by Jesus” to bring about the end times. This allegation provoked calls for a Congressional investigation. And outside the military, some Christian commentators have been cheering the war in apocalyptic terms. Trump does tend to view himself as divinely ordained. As I discussed in a previous column, the President has said God saved him from an assassin’s bullet in order to carry out God’s plan.
Whether Trump or his sycophants really believe any of this is beyond me. I tend to view this as all obvious exaggeration, akin to the bunkum peddled by hucksters and conmen. As Trump explained in The Art of the Deal, he uses “truthful hyperbole” to “play to people’s fantasies.” I criticized this idea in detail in my Trump book.
The fantasies about Armageddon show us how Trumpian hyperbole can become dangerous and delusional. When sycophants suck up to the most powerful man on earth, suggesting he is on a mission from God—or that he belongs in the pantheon of greatness—the peril is obvious.
Fakery and Confusion
All of this fantasy and fakery leads to confusion. The hallucinations of the Trump era extend to fundamental claims about the truths of American history, nonsensical disputes about science and medicine, and tendentious data that supposedly supports the greatness of the President. In this phantasmagorical atmosphere, Trumpian sycophants suck up to the President in ways that are impossible to take seriously. But Trump is tickled to receive these fawning tributes, even when they are obvious bullshit.
Which brings us back to Trump’s fake Nobel Peace Prize. As we all know, he did not earn the prize. Rather, he was given the prize by the Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who was awarded the Nobel in 2025. It seems that Ms. Machado gave Trump the prize in honor of his attack on Venezuela. Trump claimed he deserved the prize for supposedly ending eight wars—even as he started new ones.
Leaving aside the irony of a peace prize going to a warmonger, I want to emphasize here the President’s hubristic desire for accolades, even when he clearly does not deserve them. Examples of this include the phony FIFA peace prize, the effort to emblazon Trump’s name on all kinds of public entities, and Trump’s self-appointment as chairman to his newly minted “League of Peace.”
We might also consider the President’s strange fetish regarding the Congressional Medal of Honor. Among the fantastical things that President Trump said during his 2026 State of the Union address was that he always wanted the Medal of Honor. Prior to the State of the Union, at a speech in Georgia, Trump said:
I flew to Iraq. I was extremely brave. So brave I wanted to give myself the Congressional Medal of Honor.
Trump is oddly enamored (might we say envious?) of the accolades of actual medal of honor recipients, who are recognized for “valor in combat.” Commentators noted that Trump never served in the military, and that there was no combat when he visited Iraq. But of course, Trump bragged, “I was extremely brave.”
The President suggested he was joking when he made those remarks in Georgia. But the idea that Trump deserves the Nobel Peace Prize also seemed like a joke, until Trump attacked Venezuela and somehow persuaded Machado to give him her medal.
And here is the danger of Trump’s apparent fascination with the Congressional Medal of Honor. His fantasy of himself is that he is “extremely brave.” The White House website flatters this conceit by quoting a litany of fawning praise extolling his courage in declaring war on Iran. Nowhere in any of this is there a serious discussion of the ethics of war, international law, or the brutal reality of modern warfare.
Seeing Through the Fog
I am not suggesting that Trump started the war against Iran merely to prove his courage and win a prize. Nor do I want to believe that Trump’s self-absorption is so complete that he would declare war simply to flatter his own ego (but readers may draw their own conclusions…). I would hope, rather, that the institutions of government work to prevent such stupidity, although we may well wonder whether this is true in an era in which the ordinary checks and balances of the republic appear to be broken.
There are some plausible rationales for this war. Even if I do not agree with the conclusion of those arguments, some think that the Iran war can be justified for preventive or humanitarian purposes. I critically examined the explicit rationales for the Iran war in another column.
The problem is, of course, that Trump’s flawed character taints everything. Is the Iran war personal for the President or is it really about authentic claims of justice? We don’t really know because Trumpian hubris is as mystifying as the fog of war.
The propaganda about the war is bewildering because Trumpianism is morally incomprehensible. This includes the basic paradox of the idea that one can create world peace by waging war as the President has proposed. All of this confusion is exacerbated by the fact that the President and his sycophants are obsessed with mythic valor, phony accolades, and merciless fantasies about Armageddon.
When war and peace are on the table, we should stop with the foolishness and seek wisdom with humility. All of the braggadocio and braying nonsense about world-changing valor and ruthless victory clouds critical thought.
Plato taught that true courage is only found in an integrated soul. There is supposed to be unity among the virtues grounded in wisdom and truth. Courage becomes madness when it is not linked to justice, moderation, and mercy.
Some may believe that a gilded ass is really the lord of the savannah. Others may believe that Jesus is using Trump to usher in Armageddon. But the Bible reminds us that wisdom is humble, and that foolishness leads to ruin.