Donald Trump called Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado to congratulate her on winning the Nobel Peace Prize – after she dedicated the prize to the US President and her country’s pro-democracy movement.
Trump’s reaction to Machado, 58, taking the prize he has actively campaigned for may come as a surprise to critics given speculation he would be furious about not receiving the prize himself.
Many had tipped the President as a contender for brokering a historic peace deal between Israel and Hamas to end the two-year war in Gaza that has killed more than 70,000 people.
But the notoriously woke committee in Oslo rejected Trump for falling short on their standards of ‘courage and integrity.’
‘We base our decision only on the work and the will of Alfred Nobel,’ Nobel chairman Jorgen Watne Frydnes said.
Instead they announced Machado the winner on Friday morning for her fight for freedom against the communist tyrant Nicolas Maduro.
Trump’s magnanimous reaction followed the Venezuelan politician’s thanks for his ‘decisive support’ for her country’s pro-democracy movement.
‘I dedicate this prize to the suffering people of Venezuela and to President Trump,’ she wrote on X.
‘We are on the threshold of victory and today, more than ever, we count on President Trump, the people of the United States, the peoples of Latin America, and the democratic nations of the world as our principal allies to achieve Freedom and democracy,’ she added.
Trump called Machado, White House sources told Bloomberg, without revealing further details of the conversation.
Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado has said her country is counting on the US to help bring freedom from the authoritarian rule of President Nicolás Maduro
Donald Trump today called the Venezuelan politician to congratulate her for winning the Nobel prize – which had actively campaigned for
The President has been a strident voice against Maduro on the international stage and accused his regime attacking America via cartel ‘narco terrorism’.
Machado has been in hiding in Venezuela for the past year since elections that authoritarian leftist President Nicolas Maduro is accused of stealing.
The politician, who was barred from contesting the election, campaigned instead for her stand-in, ex-diplomat Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, seen by much of the international community as the rightful winner.
The Nobel Committee cited 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.’
Machado, 58, has backed Trump’s ongoing campaign of military pressure on Maduro, including a major US naval deployment near Venezuela, as a ‘necessary measure’ towards a democratic transition in Venezuela.
White House Press Secretary, Karoline Leavitt, shared Machado’s post dedicating her Nobel to Trump on her X account.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded 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 democracy,’ said chairman Jorgen Watne Frydnes
Speaking after receiving the honor, Machado said: ‘This immense recognition of the struggle of all Venezuelans is an impetus to conclude our task: to achieve freedom.’ Pictured: Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro
Several of Machado’s fellow opposition leaders, including two-time former presidential candidate Henrique Capriles, congratulated her on her prize.
‘May this recognition be another boody to achieve PEACE and for our Venezuela to leave behind the suffering and recover the freedom and democracy for which it has fought for so many years,’ Capriles wrote on X.
Trump missed out on the prize, with chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee Jorgen Watne Frydnes suggesting he was not the most deserving candidate.
He was quizzed by reporters about his campaign for the award and whether it might have influenced public perception.
Frydnes responded diplomatically, batting the question away as he explained why the committee chose Machado instead.
‘In the long history of the Nobel Peace Prize, this committee has seen [every] type of campaign,’ he said.
‘We receive thousands and thousands of letters every year, of people wanting to say what, for them, leads to peace.
Frydnes today suggested that Donald Trump did not receive the prize because he was not the most deserving candidate
‘This committee sits in a room filled with the portraits of all laureates and that room is filled with courage and integrity. We base our decision only on the work and the will of Alfred Nobel.’
The White House has since responded after the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Machado instead of Trump.
‘The Nobel Committee proved they place politics over peace,’ said Steven Cheung, the President’s director of communication.
Earlier, Russian president Vladimir Putin weighed in when asked if the US President deserved the Nobel Peace Prize.
‘It is not for me to judge whether the current US President deserves the Nobel [Peace] Prize or not, I don’t know.
‘But he is genuinely doing a lot to resolve these complex crises that have lasted for years, in some cases even decades,’ the Russian leader said.
The announcement came as Israel‘s military declared the Gaza ceasefire agreement had now come into effect, following a vote in the cabinet last night.
The US President’s name, heavily floated in the media in recent weeks, did not make the final cut.
In the months leading up to the decision, Trump had vigorously pitched himself as a peacemaker. He offered himself as a bridge builder, pointed to his 20-point Gaza peace plan, and repeatedly insisted he had ended multiple wars.
The two-time US President has been on a not-so-subtle Nobel Prize campaign since his first term in office when he claimed ‘many people’ thought he had earned it.
Speculation he could win the award this year began after he brokered the historic peace agreement between Israel and Hamas to end the two-year war in Gaza.
Both sides have agreed to the first phase of Trump’s plan to pause fighting and release hostages, a deal that could open the way to ending a brutal conflict that has killed tens of thousands of people and unleashed a humanitarian catastrophe.
Machado was lauded for being a ‘key, unifying figure in a political opposition that was once deeply divided – an opposition that found common ground in the demand for free elections and representative government,’ said Frydnes.
‘In the past year, Miss 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 recognize courageous defenders of freedom who rise and resist,’ he said.
Nicolás Maduro’s government routinely targeted its real or perceived opponents ahead of last year’s presidential election.
Machado was set to run against Maduro, but the government disqualified her. Edmundo González took her place – he had never run for office before.
The lead-up to the election saw widespread repression including disqualifications, arrests and human rights violations.
The crackdown on dissent only increased after the country’s National Electoral Council, which is stacked with Maduro loyalists, declared him the winner despite credible evidence to the contrary.
