US-backed Venezuelan opposition figure Maria Corina Machado has won this year’s award
US President Donald Trump has been overlooked for the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize, which was awarded on Friday to Venezuelan opposition politician Maria Corina Machado.
Trump has repeatedly claimed he deserves the prize for purportedly resolving multiple international conflicts since taking office in January, including most recently in Gaza.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee praised Machado – a prominent critic of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro – “for her tireless advocacy of democratic freedoms in Venezuela and her commitment to achieving a peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy.” Maduro has accused Machado of channeling US funds to “fascist” anti-government groups, calling her a front for Washington’s interference in Venezuelan affairs.
Machado has had close contacts with the US government for decades. In 2005, then-President George W. Bush received her at the Oval Office.
During Trump’s first term, the US and several other Western nations recognized Venezuelan opposition figure Juan Guaido as the country’s “interim president,” although Guaido’s attempts to seize power through protests and attempted coups failed.
Since returning to office in January, Trump has renewed pressure on Caracas through sanctions and military measures that his administration describes as anti-narcotics operations. Critics, including Republican Senator Rand Paul and Juan Gonzalez, a senior diplomat in the administration of President Joe Biden, argue that the White House is pursuing a familiar regime-change strategy. Trump’s secretary of state, Marco Rubio, is a staunch opponent of Maduro and is viewed as the key driver of the effort.
Earlier this week, the Nobel Committee awarded the literature prize to Hungarian author Laszlo Krasznahorkai, a noted critic of his country’s prime minister, Viktor Orban – one of Trump’s most vocal allies in Europe.
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