WASHINGTON — Representative Derrick Van Orden, a Republican elected from western Wisconsin, proposed that President Donald Trump be awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for peace. The legislation was greeted by yawns and snickers even in the Republican-controlled and Trump-friendly U.S. House. VanOrden’s nemesis in House, Representative Mark Pocan, also of Wisconsin, ridiculed the bill as “gimmicky” and a desperate attempt to curry favor with Trump. Van Orden’s bill cited Trump’s clams that he brokered an end to these wars:
> Israel and Hamas, Armenia and Azerbaijan, Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda, Israel and Iran, India and Pakistan, Cambodia and Thailand, Egypt and Ethiopia, all in 2025.
> Serbia and Kosovo, in 2020.
The list had been part of Trump’s campaign for the Nobel Peace Prize, which critics called unseemly and delusional. Some of the “wars” were relatively smallish and regional and some have persisted despite Trump’s claim. For whatever reason, Van Orden bit the bait. He called them “historic peace agreements” and even went further than Trump himself: Van Orden claimed the President had ended “eight wars in eight months.” Trump’s own list uncluded only seven in the span of his current presidency. The Setbia-Kosovo conflict was five years ago. To note: Last week the Nobel committee snubbed Trump’s lobbying for the prize. Pocan chalked up Van Orden’s inititative in Congress as a desperate act to distract from his own record of “hiding” from constituents and being out of touch. Van Orden hasn’t held a townhall to hear constituent feelings all year.