President Donald Trump did not receive the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, despite enthusiastic advocacy from his Republican supporters, some world leaders, and notably himself.
The prize was awarded to Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado. The Norwegian Nobel Committee recognized her “for her relentless efforts to promote democratic rights for the Venezuelan people and for her commitment to achieving a peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy.”
The White House reacted with criticism, as communications director Steven Cheung accused the Nobel Committee of prioritizing politics over peace by not awarding the prize to Trump.
“He possesses the heart of a humanitarian and has the unparalleled capability to transform situations with his unwavering determination,” Cheung posted on social media.
The White House made no direct remarks about Machado’s award. Her resistance to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro reflects the Trump administration’s stance, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio commending her as “the embodiment of resilience, tenacity, and patriotism.”
Trump, who has consistently shown interest in the honor, has been vocal about his desire for the prize throughout his presidency, especially while claiming credit for resolving international conflicts. The Republican president has also expressed skepticism about the likelihood of ever being chosen by the Nobel committee.
“They’ll have to do what they do. 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 said Thursday.
The Hostages Families Forum in Israel issued a statement Friday continuing to support Trump. “President Trump’s unprecedented achievements in peacemaking this past year speak for themselves, and no award or lack thereof can diminish the profound impact he has had on our families and on global peace,” it said.
Although Trump received nominations for the prize, many of them occurred after the Feb. 1 deadline for the 2025 award, which fell just a week and a half into his second term. His name was, however, put forward in December by Republican Rep. Claudia Tenney of New York, her office said in a statement, for his brokering of the Abraham Accords, which normalized relations between Israel and several Arab states in 2020.
Nevertheless, Trump and his supporters are likely to view the decision to pass over him for the award as a deliberate affront to the U.S. leader, particularly after his involvement in getting Israel and Hamas to initiate the first phase of ending their devastating 2-year-old war.
A long history of lobbying for the prize
Jørgen Watne Frydnes, chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, said the committee has seen various campaigns in its long history of awarding the peace prize.
“We receive thousands and thousands of letters every year of people wanting to say what for them leads to peace,” he said. “This committee sits in a room filled with the portraits of all laureates, and that room is filled with both courage and integrity. So we base only our decision on the work and the will of Alfred Nobel.”
The peace prize, first awarded in 1901, was created partly to encourage ongoing peace efforts. Alfred Nobel stipulated in his will that the prize should go to someone “who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.”
Three sitting U.S. presidents have won the Nobel Peace Prize: Theodore Roosevelt in 1906, Woodrow Wilson in 1919 and Barack Obama in 2009. Jimmy Carter won the prize in 2002, a full two decades after leaving office. Former Vice President Al Gore received the prize in 2007.
Obama, a Democrat who was a focus of Trump’s attacks well before the Republican was elected, won the prize early in his tenure as president.
“He got the prize for doing nothing,” Trump said of Obama on Thursday. “They gave it to Obama for doing absolutely nothing but destroying our country.”
Wars in Gaza and elsewhere
As one of his reasons for deserving the award, Trump often says he has ended seven wars, though some of the conflicts the president claims to have resolved were merely tensions and his role in easing them is disputed.
But while there is hope for the end to Israel and Hamas’ war, with Israel saying a ceasefire agreement with Hamas came into effect Friday, much remains uncertain about the aspects of the broader plan, including whether and how Hamas will disarm and who will govern Gaza. And little progress seems to have been made on Russia’s war in Ukraine, a conflict Trump claimed during the 2024 campaign that he could end in one day — he later said he made that remark in jest.
Trump invited Russian President Vladimir Putin — but not Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy — to Alaska in August for a summit aimed at reaching peace, but he left empty-handed, and the war started by Russia’s invasion in 2022 has since raged on.
As Trump pushes for peaceful resolutions to conflicts abroad, the country he governs remains deeply divided and politically fraught. Trump has kicked off what he hopes to be the largest deportation program in American history to remove immigrants in the U.S. illegally. He is using the levers of government, including the Justice Department, to go after his perceived political enemies. He has sent the military into U.S. cities over local opposition to stop crime and crack down on immigration enforcement.
He withdrew the United States from the landmark Paris climate agreement, dealing a blow to worldwide efforts to combat global warming. He touched off global trade wars with his on-again, off-again tariffs, which he wields as a threat to bend other countries and companies to his will. He asserted presidential war powers by declaring cartels to be unlawful combatants and launching lethal strikes on boats in the Caribbean that he alleged were carrying drugs.
The full list of people nominated is secret, but anyone who submits a nomination is free to talk about it. Trump’s detractors say supporters, foreign leaders and others are submitting Trump’s name for nomination for the prize — and, specifically, announcing it publicly — not because he deserves it but because they see it as a way to manipulate him and stay in his good graces.
Others who formally submitted a nomination for Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize — but after this year’s deadline — include Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet and Pakistan’s government, all citing his work in helping end conflicts in their regions.
___
Associated Press writer Chris Megerian contributed to this report.
