:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(736x317:738x319)/maria-corina-machado-donald-trump-101025-ae6e5dd9fc324ce1bdcca7134e2fe0b9.jpg?w=1200&resize=1200,0&ssl=1 "Nobel Snubs Trump After Year of Peacemaking; Award Goes to Venezuelan Opposition Leader")
The Nobel Committee announced Friday morning that Venezuelan Opposition Leader Maria Corina Machado is this year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner.
The committee chose to focus on Venezuela in a year where U.S. President Donald Trump featured heavily in speculation as to the overall winner, given his unceasing efforts to bring peace to a variety of conflicts around the world.
Trump said previously it would be an “insult” to the United States if he did not win the Nobel Peace Prize and he has been backed in his quest by a host of other nations, as Breitbart News reported.
“She is receiving the Nobel Peace Prize for her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela, and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy,” the committee stated in their announcement of the 2025 winner.
Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado leads a demonstration against the re-inauguration of authoritarian President Maduro in January, 2025. Machado had left her safe house for the first time in months to join the protests. (Jesus Vargas/picture alliance via Getty Images)
Machado was one of 338 candidates for the coveted prize, among them 244 individuals and 94 organisations.
The 58-year-old industrial engineer has been in hiding since August 2024, fearing for her safety after threats from supporters of the dictatorship led by President Nicolás Maduro.
Machado has refused to leave the country even though the Maduro government has repeatedly threatened her with arrest.
The Nobel Peace Prize, worth 11 million Swedish crowns, or about $1.2 million, is due to be presented in Oslo on December 10, the anniversary of the death of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, who founded the awards in his 1895 will.
Trump was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize previously in 2020 by Swedish lawmaker Magnus Jacobson for his efforts during his first term in office to mediate peace between Kosovo and Serbia.
His work in normalizing relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) was also cited as was his broader efforts in 2025.
Friday’s announcement came came less than 24-hours after Trump brokered what Israeli officials hailed as a “miraculous” deal set to free all remaining hostages and bring an end to the Gaza war.
This achievement was hailed as historic and unprecedented, with allies calling him the “President of Peace” and “the peacemaker the world needed.”
Nobel Peace Prize goes to Venezuelan opposition leader despite Trump lobbying
María Corina Machado won for her years spent “working for the freedom of the Venezuelan people,” according to the Nobel Committee chairman
OSLO — President Donald Trump on Friday did not win the Nobel Peace Prize he has long sought, with the award going to Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado.
Trump this year has forcefully lobbied for the prize, claiming to have solved seven to eight wars over the course of this term — though the reality is more complicated. Seven world leaders endorsed him for the prize, according to the White House.
He punctuated that work this week by finalizing the first phase of a peace deal in Gaza, although it is widely assumed that the winner was selected weeks ago.
Machado “has spoken out for judicial independence, human rights, and popular representation” in a time of declining democracy, Nobel Committee Chairman Jørgen Watne Frydnes said. “She has spent years working for the freedom of the Venezuelan people.”
“We live in a world where democracy is in retreat, where more and more authoritarian regimes are challenging norms and resorting to violence,” he added, saying Venezuela is “not unique,” with “rule of law abused by those in control.”.
Machado is a fierce critic of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro’s regime and has lived in hiding in Venezuela for the last year.
The prize has loomed large in Trump’s mind; he has frequently brought it up since he returned to the Oval Office. “They will never give me a Nobel Peace Prize,” the president told reporters in February. “It’s too bad. I deserve it, but they will never give it to me.”
He rehashed those concerns Thursday, telling reporters: “I don’t know what they’re going to do, but I know nobody in history has solved eight wars in a period of nine months … They’ll have to do what they do. Whatever they do is fine. I know this: I didn’t do it for that.”
Crowds of tourists braved the icy wind blowing off the Oslofjord to watch the live transmission of the announcement of this year’s winner on screens installed in front the Nobel Peace Center in the city’s waterfront.
After moments of palpable tension in the lead up to the announcement, there was an audible sign of relief and happy cheers when Venezuela’s Machado was revealed as this year’s winner.
“I’m so glad the orange guy didn’t win,” said Ulf Smilowsky, a German tourist watching the live broadcast of the announcement on the screens installed outside Oslo’s Nobel Peace Center. “I think he was the only one who thought he’d win, and I’m glad he didn’t.”
Elliot Roberts, an exchange student from Montana, agreed and said the decision to award this year’s prize to a democracy activist sent a powerful message “back home.”
“I’m glad the Norwegian Nobel Committee resisted the pressure and gave it to someone who truly deserves it at a moment when democracy is under attack around the world.”
Former NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, among others, have speculated that Trump wouldn’t actually be eligible for this year’s prize. Despite the recent movement toward a peace deal in Gaza, nominations for this year’s prize were due 11 days after Trump’s inauguration for a second term.
“If the Middle East peace process will be a success, if the 20-point plan will actually be implemented, and we will see a sustainable long-term peace in the region, that’s an important step. And if, through increased pressure on Putin, he can create peace in Ukraine, I think he would be, and should be, a strong candidate,” he told POLITICO.
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