Amid disappointment among Donald Trump’s loyalists over his open bid for the Nobel Peace Prize since returning to the White House in January, this year’s winner, María Corina Machado, has praised him. In an interview with the BBC, she said she was grateful for what Trump is doing “around the world for peace.” Machado, a leader of Venezuela’s opposition, won the 2025 prize after years of campaigning against President Nicolás Maduro Moros, whose 12-year rule is seen by many as illegitimate.
During a congratulatory phone call with Trump, she told BBC Mundo that she had shared “how grateful the Venezuelan people are for what he’s doing, not only in the Americas, but around the world for peace, for freedom, for democracy.”
Trump has repeatedly claimed that he ended seven wars, apparently in an effort to win the award himself. The window for submitting nominations closed in January, coinciding with the start of his second term. “Nobel Committee proved they place politics over peace,” a White House official said on Friday.
Machado expressed that she felt “very glad” to have spoken with the US president and that she was “able to convey to him our appreciation.”
Meanwhile, after missing out on the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize, US President Donald Trump, on Friday, claimed that the Venezuelan winner Maria Corina Machado accepted the award ‘in honour’ of him as he had extended assistance to her on multiple occasions.
While speaking to the reporter at the White House, the US President said, “The person who got the Nobel Prize called me today and said, ‘I am accepting this in honour of you because you really deserved it’… I didn’t say, ‘Give it to me’, though. I think she might have… I’ve been helping her along the way. They needed a lot of help in Venezuela during the disaster. I am happy because I saved millions of lives.”
Machado was awarded the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize for standing up for and promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela, as well as her efforts to secure a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee described Maria Corina Machado as a “brave and committed champion of peace” and stated that the Prize has been awarded to a “woman who keeps the flame of democracy burning amid a growing darkness.”
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