Maria Corina Machado Wins 2025 Nobel Peace Prize As Trump Misses Out 

Months of speculation ended Friday in Oslo when the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize. The announcement concluded debate over whether U.S. President Donald Trump’s recent effort to broker a Middle East peace deal would earn him the prestigious award.

The committee awarded the prize to Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, recognizing her role in advancing democratic change and nonviolent resistance in Venezuela.

This year’s judges include human rights advocate Jorgen Watne Frydnes as chair, Asle Toje as vice chair, former Prime Minister Anne Enger, conservative politician Kristin Clemet, and humanitarian Gry Larsen.

Frydnes has defended the committee’s independence despite heavy political pressure, as reported by Al Jazeera. Toje, who has attended Trump’s events, has said that lobbying campaigns “usually have a negative effect” on nominees’ chances.

The committee met for the final time on Monday, several days before Trump’s Gaza peace plan was finalized.

A total of 338 candidates are in contention this year, including 244 individuals and 94 organizations. Prediction markets and bookmakers list Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, Sudan’s Emergency Response Rooms, and Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny, among the favorites.

Trump’s odds stand at about 3% on Polymarket, reflecting broad skepticism among observers.

Who is Maria Corina Machado

Venezuelan opposition leader Machado, born in 1967, received the 2025 Nobel Peace 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,” according to the Nobel Committee.

Machado has been one of Venezuela’s most prominent pro-democracy figures for more than two decades.

Trained in engineering and finance, she co-founded the Atenea Foundation in 1992 to support street children in Caracas and later helped establish Sumate, an organization promoting free and fair elections.

Elected to the National Assembly in 2010 with a record number of votes, she was expelled from office in 2014 as the government consolidated its control.

Today, she leads the Vente Venezuela party and helped create the Soy Venezuela alliance, which unites opposition groups across political lines.

In 2023, she announced her presidential candidacy but was barred from running, later backing opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia in the 2024 election.

The Nobel Committee said she is honored not only for her work in Venezuela but also for keeping “the flame of democracy burning amidst a growing darkness” as democratic freedoms decline globally.

While the award drew praise from democracy advocates, Trump’s supporters argued that his diplomatic interventions deserved similar recognition.

Donald Trump’s claim to global peacemaker status

Trump has spent years campaigning for the Nobel Peace Prize.

During a February meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House, he said, “They will never give me a Nobel Peace Prize. I deserve it, but they will never give it to me.” The remark echoed a theme that has run through both of his presidencies.

Since returning to office in January 2025, Trump has repeatedly claimed to have “ended six or seven wars,” presenting himself as a deal-maker who achieves peace through strength.

He lists conflicts such as Israel-Iran, Thailand-Cambodia, and India-Pakistan among those settled through his interventions.

At an August summit with Ukrainian and European leaders, he told reporters, “I’ve done six wars, I’ve ended six wars,” later revising the number to seven in a Fox News interview.

His administration says the recent 20-point Gaza peace plan represents the culmination of this approach. The first phase of the plan was signed on Thursday and ratified by the Israeli government on Friday.

Netanyahu credited “the great efforts of our great friend and ally, President Trump” for the breakthrough, which includes the release of remaining hostages held by Hamas.

Behind the scenes, The Guardian reports that Trump has personally lobbied Norwegian officials about the prize, including a phone call to Finance Minister and former NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg.

Diplomats in Washington described the Nobel campaign as an open secret, with one senior European envoy saying, “Anytime he is talking about solving seven wars, he is really sending a message: give me the Nobel.”

Experts question Trump’s track record, timing

Analysts remain unconvinced that Trump’s achievements meet the standard set out in Alfred Nobel’s will, which calls for rewarding those who have done “the most or best to advance fellowship among nations.”

Dr. Samir Puri of Chatham House told Sky News that Trump’s record shows “an absurdity” in his claims, noting that there is “a huge difference between getting fighting to stop in the short term and resolving the root causes of the conflict.” He described most of Trump’s interventions as “conflict management rather than conflict resolution.”

Nina Graeger, director of the Peace Research Institute Oslo, said the Gaza deal came too late to influence this year’s decision, adding that “if Donald Trump’s 20-point plan will lead to a lasting and sustainable peace in Gaza, the committee would almost certainly have to take that into serious consideration in next year’s deliberations.”

Graeger also argued that Trump’s broader record weakens his claim: “He has withdrawn the U.S. from the World Health Organization and from the Paris Accord on climate. That is not exactly what we think about when we think about a peaceful president.”

Criticism has also come from the academic community. Ylva Engstrom, vice president of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, told Sky News that Trump’s domestic policies threatening education and research funding could have “devastating effects” on democratic life.

Inside Norway, members of the Nobel Committee have likewise voiced unease with lobbying efforts. Toje acknowledged that “some candidates push for it really hard and we do not like it,” while Frydnes said that resisting such pressure is “part of staying principled.”

The committee’s choice of Machado signals a focus on grassroots democracy over geopolitical deal-making, a theme that continues to define the Peace Prize’s legacy.

Credit: Türkiye Today