U.S. President Donald Trump spoke with Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado on Friday, shortly after his own administration publicly denounced the committee that granted her the honor. President Trump has frequently emphasized his desire to win the prestigious prize, and calls for him to receive the award had recently increased as his Gaza peace plan gained momentum. The nomination window for the award, however, closed at the end of January.
Machado Dedicates Award to Trump
On Friday, the Nobel Committee announced that the 2025 accolade would go to Machado for promoting democratic rights in Venezuela and “for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy.” Machado confirmed in an interview with the Spanish newspaper El País that she had spoken with the U.S. President, though she declined to offer details. The opposition leader publicly expressed her gratitude to Trump, dedicating her Nobel Prize “to the suffering people of Venezuela and to President Trump for his decisive support of our cause!”
In remarks on Friday evening, President Trump confirmed the call, claiming Machado told him she was “accepting this in honor of you, because you really deserved it.” President Trump jokingly added, “A very nice thing to do. I didn’t, I didn’t say, ‘Then give it to me,’ though I think she might have. She was very nice.” He also sought to link the win to his own achievements: “I’ve been helping her along the way… And you could also say it was given out for ’24 and I was running for office in ‘24.”
White House Rejection and Putin’s Praise
The official reaction from the administration immediately following the Nobel Prize announcement was negative. Steven Cheung, the White House communications director, posted on social media that “The Nobel Committee proved they place politics over peace,” effectively denouncing the committee’s decision. Despite this, many in the Trump administration had previously praised Machado’s work. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, along with now U.S. Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz, were among the lawmakers who nominated Machado for the prize in 2024.
The award was given to Machado after years of efforts to promote democracy and her life’s work promoting “ballots over bullets.” She has been forced into hiding in Venezuela amid a severe crackdown on dissent by Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. The Trump administration has repeatedly denounced Maduro and deployed a substantial military presence to the region to combat “narcotrafficking,” a campaign many analysts view as an attempt to weaken the Venezuelan leader and potentially drive him from power.
The Nobel Committee’s choice was interpreted by some, like Benjamin Gedan, the former Venezuelan director at the National Security Council under the previous administration, as potentially sending a message. Gedan suggested the committee might prefer that both the U.S. and the Venezuelan opposition “continue to fight peacefully for change,” noting that the White House had been “sending signals that it might use military force to topple this regime.” Gedan speculated that the U.S. administration’s negative reaction reflected both the frustration that President Trump was not chosen and discomfort with a perceived critique of U.S. policy in the Caribbean.
In a twist, President Trump publicly thanked Russian President Vladimir Putin hours after the Nobel announcement. Putin, speaking in Tajikistan on Friday, praised President Trump’s efforts, saying, “Whether the current U.S. president deserves the Nobel Prize or not, I don’t know. But he’s really doing a lot to resolve complex crises that last for years, even decades.” President Trump wrote “Thank you to President Putin!” on Truth Social, including a clip of the Russian President—a leader who has perpetuated an ongoing war in Ukraine and defied President Trump’s own peace efforts. Meanwhile, Trump’s envoy for Venezuela, Richard Grenell, declared the “Nobel Prize died years ago.”
What The Author Thinks
The spectacle of Nobel laureate Maria Corina Machado dedicating her Peace Prize to President Trump, while his own White House simultaneously denounces the award, is the ultimate illustration of transactional diplomacy meeting performative politics. Machado’s move provides vital political cover and legitimacy to Trump’s hardline stance against the Maduro regime, viewing his support as a necessary tool for change. However, Trump’s eagerness to accept this dedication and simultaneously embrace praise from Vladimir Putin—whose country is actively engaged in conflict—exposes a profound, self-serving inconsistency, confirming that the value of the prize to him is purely personal validation, regardless of the integrity or source of the endorsement.
Featured image credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr
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