President Donald Trump was awarded the new FIFA Peace Prize on Friday at the 2026 World Cup draw — giving the spectacle to set matchups for the quadrennial soccer tournament even more of a Trumpian flair.
Trump, who has openly campaigned for the Nobel Peace Price, had been heavily favoured to win the newly created FIFA prize. He and FIFA president Gianni Infantino are close allies, and Infantino had made clear that he thought Trump should have won the Nobel for his efforts to broker a ceasefire in Gaza.
The US president was awarded the prize that Infantino said was a “beautiful medal for you that you can wear everywhere you want to go.” Trump promptly placed the medal around his neck. The certificate that Infantino handed Trump recognises the US president for his actions to “promote peace and unity around the world.”
“This is what we want from a leader — a leader that cares about the people,” Infantino said about Trump, who was also presented with a gold trophy with his name on it that depicts hands holding up the world. The FIFA leader said to Trump “this is your prize, this is your peace prize.”
In one of the most pathetic and humiliating moments in history, Trump just received the new inaugural FIFA Peace Prize.
— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) December 5, 2025
They literally invented a “peace prize” to keep him happy after he didn’t receive the actual Nobel Peace Prize. Beyond parodypic.twitter.com/I1ahYRCz85
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 the coordination with the countries has been “outstanding.”
“This is truly one of the great honours of my life,” Trump said.
Infantino has often spoken about soccer as a unifier for the world, but the prize is a departure from the federation’s traditional focus on sport.
The FIFA president was also on hand Thursday at the newly renamed Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace in Washington, where Trump and the leaders of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda signed a deal aimed at ending the conflict in eastern Congo.
US President Donald Trump was just awarded the newly created “FIFA Peace Prize.”
— Human Rights Watch (@hrw) December 5, 2025
But his administration’s appalling human rights record certainly does not display “exceptional actions for peace and unity.”
Learn more: https://t.co/QSpm2Kntb4 pic.twitter.com/9uW1W54mvI
FIFA has described the prize as one that rewards “individuals who have taken exceptional and extraordinary actions for peace and by doing so have united people across the world.”
The award to Trump came during a week in which his administration has been engaged in shuttle diplomacy to try to end the war in Ukraine, while also under scrutiny for lethal strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and as Trump hardens his rhetoric against immigrants.
The Nobel this year was eventually awarded to Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who said shortly after receiving the prize that she was dedicating it in part to Trump for “his decisive support of our cause.”
(An Associated Press report via Press Trust of India)
