On Friday, the White House criticized the Nobel Prize Committee’s decision to award the Peace Prize to the Venezuelan opposition leader instead of US President Donald Trump.
White House spokesman Stephen Chung said in a post on the
He added, “The Nobel Committee has proven that it gives priority to politics at the expense of peace.”
The announcement of the award was preceded by a state of anticipation around the world, due to Trump’s announcement that he deserved the award, because he succeeded in ending “eight wars and conflicts,” as he put it, explaining that the conflicts he ended included the war between Israel and Iran, between India and Pakistan, Armenia and Azerbaijan, the Congo and Rwanda, Cambodia and Thailand, between Egypt and Ethiopia, between Serbia and Kosovo, and finally between Israel. And “Hamas”.
On Friday, the Norwegian Nobel Peace Prize Committee awarded the 2025 prize to Maria Corina Machado, leader of the Democratic Movement in Venezuela.
The Academy said, in a statement: “The 2025 Nobel Peace Prize goes to a courageous and committed champion of peace, to a woman who keeps the flame of democracy burning amid growing darkness, and is one of the most extraordinary examples of civil courage in Latin America in recent times.”
She added: “Machado is a key and unifying figure in a political opposition that was once deeply divided, an opposition that found common ground in demanding free elections and a government that represents the people.”
In response to the controversy that arose before the award, the head of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Jørgen Watne Frednes, said regarding the nomination process: “The deadline for nominations for the award is January 31 of each year, and on this day we open the list of nominees, as if it were Christmas Eve. We begin working on all the nominees to prepare the shortlist, and we have researchers around the world who help us with the background of all the nominees.”
He added: “Within the group of five in the Peace Prize Committee, we discuss each of them, until we reach a decision based on consensus and announce it to the world.”
In recent weeks, Trump intensified his campaign to obtain the award, presenting himself as “deserving” of it after reaching a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, and the possibility of concluding a peace agreement, but this was achieved about 10 months after the nomination window closed.
His efforts included public statements, contacts with Norwegian officials, and even social media calls from his son Erik, who urged his followers to support his father as a “president of peace.”
Bloomberg reported that Norway is preparing to deal with the diplomatic and economic repercussions of announcing the award, after facing increasing pressure from Trump and his administration to award him the award.
But the members of the committee stressed that external pressures would not affect their decision, and that the final decision for the award was made last Monday, and the head of the committee said that developments in the Middle East would only be taken into consideration for next year’s award.
Trump has always ridiculed the Nobel Peace Prize and the method of selecting its winners. On one occasion, he revealed his annoyance at awarding the award to former President Barack Obama, and considered that he deserved to win the award more than his predecessor. He said during a conversation with reporters at the White House that everyone believes that he (Trump) deserves the award, but at the same time he denied his interest in the matter.
