I should say up front that I do know how to skate. Figure skating, however, would be a stretch. When I was young, I wanted to be a figure skater. I could skate well enough to stay upright, but not well enough to win anything. Athletics was never my strength. I was usually picked last in gym class, or second last if someone was feeling charitable. None of that harmed me. It taught me something essential. Wanting something does not make it yours.
That said, if there happens to be a Canadian female Olympic gold medalist out there who feels a little bored with her award and would like to share it, I am apparently living in an era where that sort of thing is now conceivable.
And maybe there’s another option. Since sports were clearly not my thing, perhaps the performing arts were. In my 50s, in fact, I had the opportunity to play Mrs. Boyle in a local production of Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap. I died in the second act. Consistency matters. If anyone out there with a Tony Award feels that performance warrants recognition, I am open to that conversation. Apparently, earning it is no longer a requirement.
Awards are not aspirations. They are acknowledgements of something done.
Which brings me to today. Donald Trump has apparently been given the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize medal from María Machado, a Venezuelan opposition leader. He did, in fact, receive the physical medal. What he did not receive was a Nobel Peace Prize in any legitimate sense of the word. That one truth remains.
As the Norwegian Nobel Committee states, “once a Nobel Prize is announced, it cannot be revoked, shared, or transferred to others. The decision is final and stands for all time.” A medal can change owners, but the title of a Nobel Peace Prize laureate cannot.
That distinction is not technical. It is fundamental. Without it, we are asked to pretend that possession equals meaning. It does not.
And yes, I’m choosing humour as it is the only thing that makes the embarrassment bearable.
We have all heard stories of Super Bowl rings ending up in pawn shops. Someone sold them. Someone else bought them. But the buyer did not become a Super Bowl champion. The ring did not transfer achievement. It did not rewrite history. Without context, it was simply an object. This is no different.
He can put the medal in a drawer in the Oval Office. He can frame it on a wall. He can show it to visitors. But it does not make Trump a Nobel laureate any more than my second act death makes me an award-winning actor.
As for María Machado, some argue she has a plan. That this was leverage. That this was the currency she believes she has to use on behalf of the Venezuelan people. Perhaps. That remains to be seen. So, although the episode has not yet revealed her motive, it definitely revealed Trump’s lack of character.
And this is where the hypocrisy becomes impossible to ignore.
For years, we have been lectured by the right about merit. About how the “woke left” hands out participation trophies. About how people receive recognition they did not earn. About how DEI hires are presumed undeserving simply because they exist. Skill matters, we are told. Standards matter. Rules matter. Until, apparently, they do not.
Because nothing could be more divorced from merit than accepting an honour you did not earn. Nothing could look more like a participation trophy than a Nobel Peace Prize stripped of legitimacy and held up as proof of greatness.
If this were happening on the left, it would be mocked relentlessly. It would be called unserious and corrupt. But because it is happening here, we are told to nod along. To pretend this is normal. To confuse entitlement with achievement.
This is about a man who believes he deserves everything he wants simply because he wants it. And a movement willing to abandon every principle it claims to defend in order to protect that belief.
History will not be confused by this. But it also will not linger on it. This will not stand as a turning point or a great moment of consequence. It will be remembered, if at all, as another small, revealing episode. One more instance of a man in the Oval Office reaching for a shiny object simply because someone else once had one. No ambition or leadership. Just entitlement, briefly on display.
Nancy's Notes 