White House issue bizarre statement responding to criticism of Trump's FIFA Peace Prize

The White House has issued a statement in response to claims that Donald Trump was not deserving of receiving the inaugural FIFA Peace Prize.

US President Trump won the prize back in December, with the 79-year-old receiving the gong at a ceremony in Washington DC.

According to FIFA president Gianni Infantino, the award will be handed to those who have "taken exceptional and extraordinary actions for peace" and "united people across the world".

Since then, conflict has broken out between US-Israeli forces and Iran, prompting some to suggest Trump should be stripped of the award, while others believe the concept should be scrapped.

St Pauli captain and Australia midfielder Jackson Irvine is one of the notable critics, saying: “As an organisation, you would have to say decisions like awarding this peace prize make a mockery of what they’re trying to do with the human rights charter and trying to use football as a global driving force for good and positive change in the world.”

Meanwhile, the president of the Norwegian Football Association has called for the FIFA Peace Prize to be abolished.

Focusing on his relationship with Trump, Lise Klaveness has claimed FIFA chief Infantino should keep “an arm’s length distance” from world leaders.

Speaking to The Athletic, Klaveness said: “We want to see the FIFA Peace Prize abolished.

“We don’t think it’s part of FIFA’s mandate to give such a prize. We think we have a Nobel Institute that does that job independently already.

“We think it’s important for football federations, confederations and FIFA to try to avoid situations where this arm’s length distance to state leaders is challenged. These prizes will typically be very political if you don’t have really good instruments and experience to make this independent.

“To have a jury and criteria is full-time work. It’s so sensitive. From a resource angle and from a mandate angle, but most importantly from a governance angle, I think it should also be avoided in the future.” Ima

Defending FIFA’s decision back in February, Infantino maintained that Trump “objectively” deserved to receive the award.

White House respond to FIFA Peace Prize critics

Now, White House spokesperson Davis Ingle has issued a statement claiming that “no one else is more deserving” of the award than the US President, despite the naysayers.

“There is no one else in the world more deserving of FIFA’s first-ever peace prize than President Trump. Anyone who thinks otherwise clearly suffers from a severe case of Trump Derangement Syndrome.”

Trump will continue to be a topic of debate in the coming months, with the World Cup set to take place across North America between June 11 and July 19.