Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday morning, a blow to President Donald Trump, who has been heavily campaigning to receive the honor. The Norwegian Nobel Committee said Machado was given the prize for “her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy.”
During the ceremony in Oslo, Norwegian Nobel committee chair Jørgen Watne Frydnes praised Machado as a “brave and committed champion of peace” who “keeps the flame of democracy burning during a growing darkness.”
“This is precisely what lies at the heart of democracy, our shared willingness to defend the principles of popular rule, even though we disagree,” Frydnes said. “At a time when democracy is under threat, it is more important than ever to defend this common ground.”
Machado has been working tirelessly as a politician in Venezuela for decades, and is known for fighting for free elections. She has lived in hiding for the past year due to threats against her life. The committed noted, “When authoritarians seize power, it is crucial to recognize courageous defenders of freedom who rise and resist.”
During the announcement, a reporter as Frydnes about Trump’s demand to receive the award himself. Frydnes said the committee receives thousands of campaign and nomination letters every year, adding that they make the final decision in a room “filled with both courage and integrity.” He said they decide based on “work and the will of Alfred Nobel.”
Trump has been outspoken about believing he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize. Even as he sets the military on his own citizens and brutalizes migrant communities, he has seized on the recent ceasefire between Israel and Hamas to crown himself a peacemaker. At the White House on Thursday, Trump told reporters that he had “made seven deals and now it’s eight.” The assertion was a variation on the president’s recent claims that during his current nine months in office, he “ended” seven wars.
“[I] solved the wars, one going 31 years, one going 34 years, one going 35 years, one going ten years. I made seven deals. This would be number eight,” he said Thursday, adding that former President Barack Obama had received the prize, “For doing nothing. Didn’t even know what he got it for. … My election was a much more important election.”
At the UN General Assembly last month, the president said that “everyone says that I should get the Nobel Peace Prize.”
Many of Trump’s supporters campaigned for the president to be the next recipient of the prize. “Give [Trump] the Nobel Peace Prize – he deserves it!,” the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wrote on X. The official White House X account posted a photo of Trump with the caption “THE PEACE PRESIDENT.”
The Trump administration has notably been attacking Venezuelan citizens in recent months. The president has been using false information to justify military strikes on alleged drug-trafficking boats in the Caribbean near the country. After destroying on of these boats, Trump shared an impossible claim on Truth Social, writing, “A boat loaded with enough drugs to kill 25 TO 50 THOUSAND PEOPLE was stopped, early this morning off the Coast of Venezuela, from entering American Territory.”
Trump has yet to respond to the announcement from the Norwegian Nobel Committee. As recently as five hours before the ceremony, the president was sharing links on Truth Social promoting himself for the win.
More from Rolling Stone
Best of Rolling Stone
Sign up for RollingStone’s Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
