It is not often that a Nobel prize is regifted, and features on the corporate media news cycle. But there are exceptions to this rule. Nobel peace prize winner for 2025, Maria Corina Machado, regifted her prize to US President Donald Trump. A farcical ceremony, Trump the egomaniac craved the recognition of that prize, and Machado the faithful Venezuelan MAGA servant, overinflated his already swollen ego.

Fragile egomaniac that he is, the mango Mussolini in the White House craves legitimacy. International awards are one way of gaining that much desired recognition. Machado’s regifting of the Nobel peace prize is not the first time such an event has occurred. Norwegian Nobel prize for literature winner (1920) Knut Hamsun, regifted his award to Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels in 1943.

An influential novelist, Hamsun’s work inspired generations of writers, including figures such as Hemingway, Maxim Gorky and Stefan Zweig. He was also a Nazi sympathiser, expressing the view that Hitler was a warrior fighting for the survival and dignity of the white Christian civilisation.

In 1920, Hamsun was considered one of the most important writers in the world. By 1945, he was universally reviled. Hamsun, hailed by Isaac Bashevis Singer as originator of modern narrative in the 20th century, became a propagandist for white supremacy and Nazism.

Trump’s undeserved Nobel follows up on another equally farcical and ridiculous award; the manufactured FIFA prize given to Trump by the football chief Gianni Infantino. The ceremony, fawning and disgraceful in equal measure, was actually quite telling. Failing the Nobel prize, the sports body invented an award, providing Trump with a symbolic victory for personal favouritism.

Were there other nominees for this award? What were the criteria for success? None of these questions have been answered. The links between the actions and practices of FIFA and ethical values have been tenuous at best.

When you bestow an award on a person or organisation, you are not only providing the recipient with legitimacy and recognition. You are also stating to the world the kind of behaviour you find acceptable. You are attaching your name and reputation to the behaviour of the recipient, giving them your seal of approval.

December last year was the 135th anniversary of the Wounded Knee Massacre. Nearly 300 unarmed Lakota men, women and children were killed by US soldiers, specifically from the US 7th Cavalry. The indigenous people were surrendering when the massacre occurred. The incident took place in South Dakota.

This particular killing has been a sore point in relations between the US authorities and indigenous communities. Why am I relating this incident? 19 soldiers who partook in this specific massacre were awarded Medals of Honour. 31 troops in all were awarded for their service in the campaign against the Lakota people.

Prior to this incident, the editor of the Saturday Pioneer, a South Dakota newspaper, L. Frank Baum, expressed his opinion that the ‘red Indians’ need to be exterminated to secure the safety and tranquility of the white race. After the Wounded Knee Massacre, Baum wrote in yet another column that of course we have wronged the Indians, but now, let’s finish the job and wipe out this untameable race, for the security of the white civilisation.

You will be familiar with Baum, not for his work as a propagandist for white supremacy and genocidal violence, but for his authorship of the children’s book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the basis of the internationally successful 1939 movie.

Baum never fired a gun in anger; he never murdered anyone. Through his regular writings, he made genocidal violence committed against the indigenous people normal, distasteful perhaps, but nevertheless necessary. A propagandist for white supremacy, I sometimes wonder what the difference is between Baum, and the German propagandist Julius Streicher.

There has been a longstanding campaign by military veterans, indigenous advocacy groups and human rights organisations to have the Wounded Knee medals of honour revoked. Pete Hegseth, the current secretary of defence (who likes to think of himself as war secretary), firmly rejected any moves towards revocation.

Hegseth’s decision protects the murderers, and their reputations. He is helping to preserve a lie; that Wounded Knee was a valiant, praiseworthy battle. Revoking the medals of honour will not eliminate racism or solve all the problems of the indigenous communities in one stroke.

It will be a first step towards reconciliation. Expressing remorse for criminal actions reveals the conscience motivating the person. Maintaining those medals of honour for the Wounded Knee Massacre, Hegseth is indicating the type of conduct he finds acceptable.

Did we not prosecute and hang Nazi German civilian and military leaders at the conclusion of the 1945 Nuremberg trials for similar criminal conduct?