Washington– President Donald Trump received FIFA’s new Peace Prize on Friday at the 2026 World Cup draw – giving the spectacle of deciding matches in the quadrennial soccer tournament an even more Trumpian feel.
Trump, who has publicly campaigned for a Nobel Peace Prize, was heavily favored to win the newly created FIFA award. He and FIFA President Gianni Infantino are close allies, and Infantino has made clear that he believes Trump should have won the Nobel Prize for his efforts to broker a ceasefire in Gaza.
The American President received the award, which Infantino said was “a beautiful medal for you that you can wear everywhere you want to go.” Trump quickly placed the medal around his neck. The certificate that Infantino handed over to Trump recognizes the US president for his actions “to promote peace and unity throughout the world.”
“This is what we want from a leader — a leader who cares about people,” Infantino said of Trump, who also received a gold trophy with his name on it that depicts hands holding the world. The FIFA president told Trump: “This is your award, this is your peace award.”
Trump thanked his family, including his wife, First Lady Melania Trump, and praised the leaders of the other two host nations — Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum — in his brief remarks, saying coordination with the two countries had been “excellent.”
“This is truly one of the greatest honors of my life,” Trump said.
Infantino has often spoken of football as a unifier for the world, but the award represents a departure from the federation’s traditional focus on sport.
The FIFA president was also present on Thursday at the newly renamed Donald Trump Peace Institute in Washington, where Trump and the leaders of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda signed an agreement aimed at ending the conflict in eastern Congo.
FIFA described the award as an award that rewards “individuals who have taken exceptional and extraordinary actions for peace and in doing so have united people around the world.”
Trump’s award came during a week in which his administration engaged in shuttle diplomacy to try to end the war in Ukraine, while also under scrutiny for deadly strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean, and as Trump hardens his rhetoric against immigrants.
This year’s Nobel Prize was ultimately awarded to Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who said shortly after receiving the award that she would dedicate it in part to Trump “for his decisive support for our cause.”
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