Trump misses out on Nobel Peace Prize despite claiming to have ended seven wars

The prize has been awarded to Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado

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Maria Corina Machado has been awarded the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize, clinching the accolade ahead of hundreds of nominees including Donald Trump.

The five-strong Norwegian Nobel Committee announced this year’s recipient of the prestigious honour on Friday, with Venezuela’s opposition leader emerging at the top of a field of 338 nominees.

White House communications director Steven Cheung accused the Nobel Committee of placing “politics over peace” with its decision – even though the deadline for nominations was 31 January, not long after Trump’s inauguration.

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“President Trump will continue making peace deals around the world, ending wars, and saving lives,” Cheung said. “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.

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

Machado, 58, beat 243 individuals and 94 organisations. Judges awarded her the 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”.

She has been forced into hiding since the days following Venezuela’s presidential election in January, when authorities loyal to Nicolas Maduro, the country’s autocratic leader, declared he had won a third term despite evidence to the contrary.

The committee said: “In the past year, Ms Machado has been forced to live in hiding. Despite serious threats against her life, she has remained in the country, a choice that has inspired millions.

“When authoritarians seize power, it is crucial to recognise courageous defenders of freedom who rise and resist.”

Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado has been in hiding since the disputed election of president Nicolas Maduro for a third term (Photo: Leonardo Fernandez/Reuters)

Machado has been in hiding since August 2024. After she was disqualified, Edmundo Gonzalez was chosen in her place. Gonzalez was forced to seek asylum in Spain.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee chose to focus on Venezuela, in a year dominated by Trump’s repeated public statements that he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize.

Ahead of the announcement, experts on the award said Trump would not win as he is dismantling the international world order the Nobel committee cherishes.

Trump, who was seeking to become the fourth American president to win the prize, has been increasingly vocal during his second term about his desire for recognition over brokering an Israel-Gaza peace deal and efforts to secure an end to the Russia-Ukraine war.

During a meeting with the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, in February, Trump said: “They will never give me a Nobel Peace Prize. I deserve it, but they will never give it to me.”

He has suggested several times that he has been instrumental in stopping multiple wars.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the 2025 #NobelPeacePrize to Maria Corina Machado 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… pic.twitter.com/Zgth8KNJk9 — The Nobel Prize (@NobelPrize) October 10, 2025

“In a period of just seven months, I have ended seven ‘un-endable’ wars,” he claimed during his address to the United Nations General Assembly last month. “No president or prime minister – and for that matter, no other country – has ever done anything close to that.”

Trump was nominated for the prize by several politicians, including Netanyahu and Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Manet.

Netanyahu nominated Trump in July – six months after the deadline to apply – after the President claimed credit for stopping the war with Iran in June.

Chair of the committee, Jorgen Watne Frydnes, was asked about the pressure from Trump himself and from some in the international community.

Machado addresses supporters at a protest against Maduro in Caracas the day before his inauguration for a third term in January this year (Photo: Ariana Cubillos/AP)

Frydnes said in the “long history” of the award the committee has seen campaigns and “media tension”.

“We base our decision only on the work and the will of Alfred Nobel,” he concluded, referring to the awards’ founder.

Although the prize committee does not publish a list of candidates, it said there were 338 nominations, of which 244 were individuals and 94 organisations.

Former US president Theodore Roosevelt became the first White House-based Nobel recipient in 1906, followed by fellow presidents Woodrow Wilson in 1920 and Jimmy Carter in 2002.

Vice president Al Gore won the award in 2007, with president Barack Obama doing so two years later at the beginning of his first term in office.

The Nobel Peace Prize, worth Skr11m, or about £867,000, is due to be presented in Oslo on 10 December, the death anniversary of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, who founded the awards in his 1895 will.

The prize usually includes a medal, personal diploma, and the award money.

In accordance with Nobel’s will, the recipient is selected by the Norwegian Nobel Committee, a five-member body appointed by the parliament of Norway.