anxt “Trump Loses Nobel Peace Prize to Venezuelan Politician María Corina Machado After Repeatedly Saying He Wants the Award”

NEED TO KNOW

• President Donald Trump lost out on the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize
• This year’s prize went to Venezuelan opposition leader, María Corina Machado
• Machado, who was described as a “brave and committed champion of peace” during the Oct. 10 announcement, was awarded for her “tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela”

President Donald Trump did not win a Nobel Peace Prize this week, despite loudly campaigning in his own favor.

Rather than the U.S. president, who has recently, repeatedly, boasted that he deserves the prize, this year’s Peace Prize went to Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado.

On Friday, Oct. 10, it was announced that the award was going to a “brave and committed champion of peace” as politician Machado, 58, was declared the recipient of the 2025 prize for her “tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela” and “her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy.”

Jørgen Watne Frydnes, chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, said Machado meets “all the criteria” laid out by Alfred Nobel for the prize, adding that she has “brought the country’s opposition together, being steadfast in her support for a peaceful transition to democracy.”

Frydnes was then asked about 79-year-old Trump’s campaign for the prize.

He said that “in the long history of the Nobel Peace” the committee has “seen any type of campaign, media attention.” “We receive thousands and thousands letters every year of people wanting to say what for them leads to peace,” Frydnes continued. “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.”

In a video posted to X by Edmundo González — who replaced Machado when she was barred from running in last year’s presidential elections in Venezuela — Machado could be heard saying she was “in shock” at the news during a phone call.

“What is this? I can’t believe it,” Machado, who lives in hiding, said, per a translation by the BBC.

Trump’s campaign for the Nobel has been going on for at least a year. However, since taking office for his second term in January, he’s adopted the mantra that he deserves the prize for negotiating solutions to “seven unendable wars.”

While he did contribute to ceasefire agreements between Israel and Iran, as well as Cambodia and Thailand, and mediated the end of fighting between India and Pakistan, Trump’s involvement in some of his other claimed victories is murky at best.

Fighting still rages on between rival militaries in eastern Congo, some backed by the Democratic Republic of Congo. The opposite is true when it comes to Egypt and Ethiopia, whose war of words over access to the Nile River will likely continue for years, though thankfully, there has been no physical violence.

Similarly, experts say that, while tensions are high in the region, there was no war between Serbia and Kosovo for Trump to end, though he has also claimed victory there.

Finally, while he did mediate tensions between Azerbaijan and Armenia, Trump stepped on his own victory by misspeaking soon after and calling Armenia “Albania,” leading to a viral clip of world leaders mocking his faux pas.

Trump’s international efforts have earned him some measure of praise, however, even from the other side of the political aisle. This week, Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman — who was elected as a Democrat but has sided with Republicans in some recent votes — was asked if the president deserved the Nobel Prize after the first step in the Israel-Hamas deal was announced.

“If this sticks. I think the whole point of having a Nobel Peace Prize is for ending wars and promoting peace,” Fetterman said. “And if he brings the Ukrainian war to its end, I will be the Democrat leading the committee for his Nobel Prize Peace.”

Our new app is here! Free, fun and full of exclusives. Scan to download now!

While the first step of a peace deal between Israel and Gaza, which Trump announced on Wednesday night, could end up being the ultimate feather in the president’s Peace Prize cap, there are several potential stumbling blocks ahead. Both sides’ agreement depends on the other following through, something that’s been historically hard to negotiate.

It was ultimately a moot point, as the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced on Thursday that it had selected the 2025 Peace Prize winner on Monday, days before the latest ceasefire plan was announced.

Kirsti Bergstø, the leader of Norway’s Socialist Left party and its foreign policy spokesperson, said that the country was bracing itself for Trump’s reaction if he did not win.

“Donald Trump is taking the US in an extreme direction, attacking freedom of speech, having masked secret police kidnapping people in broad daylight and cracking down on institutions and the courts. When the president is this volatile and authoritarian, of course we have to be prepared for anything,” Bergstø told The Guardian.

“The Nobel Committee is an independent body and the Norwegian government has no involvement in determining the prizes. But I’m not sure Trump knows that. We have to be prepared for anything from him.”

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

Trump has repeatedly invoked former President Barack Obama when campaigning for his own Nobel. On the 2024 campaign trail, he mentioned multiple times that, “If my name were Obama, I’d have a Nobel in 10 seconds.”

It’s not a surprise, given many believe that Trump’s ire towards Obama is what led him to run for president in the first place, and the former President won the prize in 2009, during his first term.

In 2011, Trump was roasted at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner by Obama as well as that year’s host, Saturday Night Live star Seth Meyers.

At the time, the Apprentice host was one of the biggest proponents of the “birther” conspiracy that Obama was not a U.S. citizen and was therefore not eligible for the presidency, which the Obama family didn’t take lightly.

“Now I know that he’s taken some flak lately. But no one is happier — no one is prouder — to put this birth certificate matter to rest than The Donald,” Obama said to the room at the 2011 dinner. “And that’s because he can finally get back to focusing on the issues that matter: Like, did we fake the moon landing? What really happened in Roswell? And where are Biggie and Tupac?”

“All kidding aside,” he continued, “obviously we all know about your credentials and breadth of experience. For example, just recently, in an episode of Celebrity Apprentice, at the steakhouse, the men’s cooking team did not impress the judges from Omaha Steaks. And there was a lot of blame to go around, but you, Mr. Trump, recognized that the real problem was a lack of leadership, and so ultimately you didn’t blame Lil Jon or Meat Loaf, you fired Gary Busey.”

“These are the kinds of decisions that would keep me up at night,” Obama quipped. “Well handled, sir. Well handled.”

https://people.com/embed?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Dn9mzJhvC-8E&id=mntl-sc-block_64-0-iframe&options=e30%3D&docId=11827735

Though Trump appeared visibly unhappy by the jokes, Obama continued to take shots at him in 2015 and 2016 as his bid for the presidency became a reality.

“I hope you all are proud of yourselves,” Obama said to the room of journalists at his final event as president. “The guy wanted to give his hotel business a boost, and now we’re praying that Cleveland makes it through July.”

Since becoming president shortly thereafter, Trump has snubbed the Correspondents’ Dinner every year he’s been in office, though he denied that Obama’s ribbing motivated his desire to win the White House.

“There are many reasons I’m running. But that’s not one of them,” he told The Washington Post during his 2016 campaign.