Nobel Committee Defends Choice of Machado Over Trump for Peace Prize

The head of the Norwegian Nobel Committee on Friday defended the decision to award this year’s Nobel Peace Prize to Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado over U.S. President Donald Trump, who garnered acclaim for his efforts to broker peace deals across the world.

During the announcement ceremony in Oslo, Committee Chair Jørgen Watne Frydnes was asked about the widespread calls to give the award to Trump, who had said it would be a “big insult” to the United States if he were passed over.

“In the long history of the Nobel Peace Prize, I think this committee has seen many types of campaign, media attention,” Frydnes said. “We receive thousands and thousands of letters every year of people wanting to say what, for them, leads to peace.

“This committee sits in a room filled with the portraits of all laureates and that room is filled with both courage and integrity. So we base only our decision on the work and the will of Alfred Nobel.”

Frydnes did not comment on the timing of the nominations. The deadline for submissions was Jan. 31, just days into Trump’s second term as president, meaning nominations based on his most recent record of settling global conflicts would only be eligible for consideration for the 2026 prize.

The Committee separately said Machado, who has been forced into hiding following Venezuela’s highly disputed 2024 presidential election that handed socialist strongman Nicolás Maduro a third six-year term, was selected “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.”

White House communications director Steven Cheung denounced the decision, accusing the committee of acting out of politics rather than honoring the prize’s mission.

“He has the heart of a humanitarian, and there will never be anyone like him who can move mountains with the sheer force of his will,” Cheung wrote in a statement on X, referring to Trump.

“The Nobel Committee proved they place politics over peace.”

Speaking at the U.N. General Assembly last month, Trump took credit for ending what he called “seven un-endable wars” since returning to the White House in January.

“I ended seven wars, and in all cases, they were raging, with countless thousands of people being killed,” he said.

“This includes Cambodia and Thailand, Kosovo and Serbia, the Congo and Rwanda—a vicious, violent war that was—Pakistan and India, Israel and Iran, Egypt and Ethiopia, and Armenia and Azerbaijan.

“No president or prime minister—and for that matter, no other country—has ever done anything close to that.”

While the five-member Nobel Committee made its decision earlier this week, some of Trump’s allies made a last-minute push to have him honored for helping broker a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, raising their count of his diplomatic accomplishments to eight.

Leading the call was Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who shared an AI-generated image of Trump wearing a Nobel medal with the caption: “Give [President Trump] the Nobel Peace Prize—he deserves it!”

Israel and Hamas signed an agreement on Oct. 9 to free Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, the first phase of the Trump-proposed pathway to end the conflict. The war in Gaza has raged since Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas-led terrorists attacked Israel, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking more than 250 Israelis as hostages back to the enclave.