What did Donald Trump do today?

He accepted yet another "peace" prize.

FIFA is the world's governing body for soccer. It's almost as notable for its decades of open, rampant corruption and cozy relationships with authoritarian governments as for the popularity of the sport's major championship, the World Cup. That event will be held in cities across North America next year. Its president, Gianni Infantino, arguably has more influence than some world leaders. And like many world leaders, Infantino has launched an openly manipulative charm offensive with Trump as the target.

In the wake of Trump's failed campaign to win the Nobel Peace Prize he feels he deserves, FIFA abruptly announced in November that it would be launching its own "peace prize." The winner was announced today, and to nobody's surprise, it was Trump, who made a special trip just to receive it. The award came with a trophy, a medal (which Trump plucked out of the box and put on himself), and a ten-minute video that repeated many of the same false claims that Trump has made about his "peacemaking."

 

What FIFA hopes to get from its flattery of Trump isn't entirely clear, although in the short term they may settle for having some ability to restrain him from destroying the 2026 event altogether. Trump has already blocked teams from entering the United States for practice and threatened to move matches out of cities governed by his political enemies. Worse for FIFA, his erratic and at times openly authoritarian immigration policies are killing international tourism to the United States, which promises to hurt revenue for the World Cup.

But to judge from the fact that Trump today proposed renaming (American) football to let the sport Americans generally know as soccer have the word, the tactic is working.

Why does this matter?

• Even by Trump's standards, this is embarrassing.