Trump was just handed the Nobel Peace Prize and Democrats are furious
Donald Trump has helped end countless wars. Now he is finally getting the credit he deserves.
Because Trump was just handed the Nobel Peace Prize and Democrats are furious.
Nobel Award to Venezuelan Opposition Leader
On Friday, Venezuelan opposition figure Maria Corina Machado received the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts against dictatorship in Venezuela. She dedicated the honor in part to U.S. President Donald Trump, who has often stated he merits the award.
Machado, a 58-year-old industrial engineer in hiding, faced a court ban in 2024 that prevented her from competing in the presidential election against President Nicolas Maduro, in office since 2013.
“Oh my God … I have no words,” Machado said to Kristian Berg Harpviken, secretary of the award body, during a phone call shared by the Nobel Committee on social media.
“I thank you so much, but I hope you understand this is a movement, this is an achievement of a whole society. I am just one person. I certainly do not deserve it,” she added.
In an English post on X, she stated: “I dedicate the prize to the suffering people of Venezuela and to President Trump for his decisive support of our cause!”
Trump maintains strong opposition to Maduro, and the U.S. stands among nations refusing to acknowledge his government’s validity.
White House Response and Venezuelan Context
The White House earlier faulted the Norwegian Nobel Committee’s choice to center on Venezuela shortly after Trump revealed progress in negotiations to stop the Gaza conflict between Israel and Hamas.
“President Trump will continue making peace deals, ending wars, and saving lives… The Nobel Committee proved they place politics over peace,” White House spokesperson Steven Cheung posted on X.
Maduro began his third term in January amid a prolonged election controversy, global demands for his resignation, and a heightened U.S. bounty for his arrest, following 12 years of severe economic and social turmoil.
“When authoritarians seize power, it is crucial to recognise courageous defenders of freedom who rise and resist,” the Nobel Committee stated in its citation.
Marco Rubio, currently Trump’s secretary of state, put forward Machado’s nomination for the Peace Prize in August 2024 alongside U.S. congressional members, while still serving as a senator.
It remains uncertain if Machado can appear at the December 10 ceremony in Oslo, marking the death anniversary of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish industrialist who established the prizes in his 1895 will.
If absent, she would align with past Peace Prize recipients barred from attending, such as Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov in 1975, Poland’s Lech Walesa in 1983, and Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi in 1991.
Machado marks the first Venezuelan Nobel Peace Prize winner and the sixth from Latin America. Her three adult children reside overseas for security.
Reactions and U.S. Actions
The United Nations human rights office praised the award to Machado as acknowledgment of “the clear aspirations of the people of Venezuela for free and fair elections”.
Joergen Watne Frydnes, head of the award committee, expressed hope that it energizes the Venezuelan opposition.
“We hope that the entire opposition will have renewed energy to continue the work for a peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy,” Frydnes told Reuters after the announcement.
Trump’s frequent assertions of deserving the prize overshadowed the buildup to this year’s announcement.
“The democratic opposition of Venezuela is something that the U.S. has been eager to support. So, in that sense, it would be hard for anyone to constitute this as an insult to Trump,” said Halvard Leira, research director at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs.
In recent weeks, the U.S. targeted multiple vessels suspected of drug transport near Venezuela’s coast.
Trump classified the U.S. involvement as “a non-international armed conflict” with drug cartels, per a congressional notification outlining legal grounds for lethal strikes on boats off Venezuela.
Machado endorsed the U.S. military efforts publicly, stating to Fox Noticias last month that the operation was “aimed at saving lives” in both countries.
Frydnes, the Nobel committee leader, avoided specifying criteria for future awards to Trump or others, or if Gaza peace initiatives might qualify in 2026.
“It’s not our task to tell other people or other countries what to do, our task is to give out the peace prize…. So we’ll have to see next year,” Frydnes said.
The committee finalized the 2025 prize—honoring 2024 accomplishments—prior to the Wednesday announcement of a ceasefire and hostage agreement in the initial stage of Trump’s Gaza plan.
The peace prize, valued at 11 million Swedish crowns or roughly $1.2 million, concluded this week’s Nobel announcements after literature, chemistry, physics, and medicine. In 2024, Japanese group Nihon Hidankyo, comprising Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bomb survivors, took the award.
