Nobel Peace Prize laureate María Corina Machado dedicated her award to the Venezuelan people and to US President Donald Trump.
In a post on X on Friday, the Venezuelan opposition leader wrote that the ‘recognition of the struggle of all Venezuelans is a boost to conclude our task: to conquer Freedom.’ She added: ‘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.’ Machado dedicated the prize to ‘the suffering people of Venezuela and to President Trump for his decisive support of our cause.’
Trump, who has long sought the Nobel Peace Prize, has made major diplomatic efforts since returning to the White House. He claims to have resolved eight conflicts, including the Cambodia–Thailand border dispute, the decades-long Armenia–Azerbaijan conflict in the South Caucasus, and most recently, the Gaza war. While the Trump administration has also pursued a ceasefire in Ukraine, those talks have yet to produce tangible results.
‘Whatever they do is fine. I know this: I didn’t do it for that—I did it because I saved a lot of lives,’ Trump told reporters at a White House press conference on Friday. The president reposted Machado’s message on Truth Social without further comment.
White House Communications Director Steven Cheung sharply criticized the Swedish Academy’s Nobel Committee, accusing it of placing ‘politics over peace’. He added: ‘President Trump will continue making peace deals, ending wars, and saving lives. 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.’
Machado’s victory comes amid Venezuela’s prolonged political and humanitarian crisis under Nicolás Maduro. For the opposition, Donald Trump is seen as a key ally against the regime, having severed diplomatic ties, accused Maduro of drug trafficking, and offered a $50 million reward for his arrest. The Trump administration has also conducted strikes on Venezuelan vessels accused of smuggling drugs into the US.
Trump has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by several foreign leaders, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, Argentinian President Javier Milei, Maltese Foreign Minister Ian Borg, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet, and the government of Pakistan. Russian President Vladimir Putin also voiced his support, praising Trump as a leader who ‘solves complex problems, crises that last for decades,’ and criticizing the Nobel Committee as being full of people who ‘have done nothing for the world.’
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