Theatre of the Grotesque

Donald Trump was angry. He had not won the Nobel Peace Prize. But Gianni Infantino, the President of FIFA, promptly stepped in with a solution. At the ceremony in Washington, D.C., held to determine the groups of countries that will compete in the 2026 World Cup, Infantino gave Donald Trump the “FIFA Peace Prize.” This happened at a time when the United States Congress is investigating Donald Trump’s administration for executing castaways who had survived an attack by the U.S. Navy on the high seas — an action that, if not a war crime, constitutes murder.

Jair Bolsonaro is angry, convicted and imprisoned in Brazil for an attempted coup d’état. But Eduardo Bolsonaro, his son, who moved to the United States and began requesting that Donald Trump take retaliatory measures against a sovereign decision of the Brazilian government, went to Israel to ask Benjamin Netanyahu to intervene in order to “free” his father. Benjamin Netanyahu, as is publicly and widely known, has an outstanding arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court for genocide and has been condemned for the same reason by the UN Independent Commission. It is also notable that Benjamin Netanyahu is currently on trial in Israel for corruption and has asked Donald Trump to save him from jail.

It is the Theater of the Grotesque.