President Donald Trump has added another shiny award to his cabinet of trophies that have just been invented, after being named “Undisputed Champion of Beautiful Clean Coal.”
“Clean beautiful coal. We love clean beautiful coal, don’t we?” the president said, kicking off an event at the White House Wednesday.
“I’m thrilled to welcome to the White House the men and women who light our cities, and you know, you do things that people don’t even understand, so much, you do so much. You heat our homes, fuel our factories and turn natural resources into American riches and dreams. Our amazing coal miners.”
The president went on to boast of his administration’s achievements in the coal arena, including raising production by 4 million tons a month after falling for “literally decades” and withdrawing from the Paris Climate Accord.
“I ended the war on coal,” Trump declared. He was later presented with a physical trophy which featured a bronze statue of a coal miner on the top and was engraved with “Undisputed Champion of Beautiful Clean Coal.”
Though Trump is not the first person to coin the phrase “clean coal,” he did popularize it after including the adjective “beautiful,” which he has been known to do in other circumstances when speaking in public.
The award was handed over by President and CEO of Peabody Energy Jim Grech, while more than a dozen coal executives and miners in hard hats – members of the Washington Coal Club – looked on. The club is a pro-coal advocacy group with financial ties to the coal mining industry, according to The New York Times.
It is not the first time Trump has been the “inaugural recipient” of an award presented by those looking to curry his favor.
Soccer fans reacted with outrage and incredulity in early December after Trump accepted the newly created “FIFA Peace Prize” during the 2026 World Cup draw – shortly after losing out on the actual Nobel Peace Prize, which he has long bemoaned not being nominated for.
Pictures of the president being handed the prize by FIFA President Gianni Infantino at the glitzy ceremony at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., drew heavy criticism online, with some users calling the spectacle “pathetic” and “beyond parody.”
According to the football association, the newly created peace prize is meant to “reward individuals who have taken exceptional and extraordinary actions for peace and by doing so have united people across the world.” Trump has also “championed the unifying power of football on the world stage,” according to FIFA.
As well as the prize, Infantino also handed Trump “a beautiful medal for you that you can wear everywhere you want to go,” which the president accepted with a smile. “Its like giving the child a sweetie to keep him amused,” remarked one social media user online, with another adding with exasperation: “When does it end?”
Not there, apparently. One month later Trump was presented with the Nobel Peace Prize by its winner, Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, when the pair met in Washington D.C. The president confirmed he had been offered the prize “for the work I have done” and thanked Machado, calling the offer “such a wonderful gesture of mutual respect.”
But, sadly for Trump, the organizers of the Nobel Prize said that the award “cannot be revoked, shared or transferred” and that the decision to award the medal is “final and stands for all time.”
As well as his trophies, Apple CEO Tim Cook previously also presented Trump with a custom gift in August 2025, consisting of a circular glass plaque with a 24-karat pure gold base – which earned him backlash online.
“This feels like something you do for Kim Jong Un to avoid having your family fed to pigs. I guess that’s where we are now,” wrote one user on X, with another commenting: “Tim Cook shows the world how to kiss a** like a pro.”
