Will Donald come up trumps with a Nobel Peace Prize? We'll know Friday...

The TOI correspondent from Washington: “I’d kill for a Nobel Peace Prize ,” the comedian Steven Wright once joked. The political satirist PJ O’Rourke reminded us that the Nobel Peace Prize is named after a man (Alfred Bernhard Nobel) who “famously invented dynamite and felt sorry about it." Among other putdowns of the famed award, singer-songwriter-mathematician Tom Lehrer noted that “political satire became obsolete” when they awarded the prize to Henry Kissinger, regarded as a war criminal by some commentators, notably Christopher Hitchens.

Such mockery aside, one man may be holding his breath hoping for the coveted prize – which will be announced Friday – while claiming he really doesn’t care for it. US President Donald Trump has been more than candid about how much he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize, going as far as to lobby openly for the award on numerous occasions – so transparently that it has become something of a joke. After he claimed in June that he "should have gotten it four or five times," one commentator jibed that he should get a "Nobel Prize variety pack" for everything, including economics and chemistry.

Not that the lampooning has deterred him. Starting with a severe case of envy several months ago ("If I were named Obama, I would have had the Nobel Prize given to me in 10 seconds") to a sense resignation on Wednesday that he may not get it ("But perhaps they'll find a reason not to give it to me."), Trump has spoken so often about his Nobel quest that his rambling has been described as a "not-a-campaign campaign" that could actually work against him because the Nobel committee may wish to avoid appearing to cave in to political pressure. Not to speak of his nomination being pushed by some of the more violent, war-mongering states, notably Pakistan.

In any case, it may be a case of too little, too late. Nominations for the 2025 prize closed on January 31, shortly after Trump’s return to the White House, and word out of Norway is that the decision on this year’s award was made Monday, before the hostage exchange and Gaza cease-fire deal for which even Trump most trenchant critics cannot deny him credit. However, the head of the independent Nobel committee, Jorgen Watne Frydnes, has indicated to the Norwegian media that Trump’s role would only count toward next year’s award, an interminable wait during which expect to hear claims and laments every day going by his record.

Meanwhile, late-night hosts are having a field day parodying the the MAGA supremo's desperate quest. Trump’s bete-noire Jimmy Kimmel jibed that the US President is so desperate for that Nobel that “he's basically like the kid who brings his own trophy to the awards show.” Seth Meyers joked: Look, I know he doesn't deserve it, but can we please just give it to him? It's all he wants, and I honestly think he'll spend the rest of his life admiring it in the mirror and we'll just never see him again."

Meyers also mocked Trump's claim of ending "seven conflicts," quipping, "Yeah, by starting eight more—talk about a net positive for chaos." And as US cities are going up in flames necessitating domestic deployment of the military (according to Trump) and the US Prez opened a new warfront targeting Venezuela, Stephen Colbert asked: "When’s the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony? Oh right, right after the Anger Management one."