THE White House has criticised the decision of the Nobel Peace Prize committee for naming Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, the winner of the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize over United State President Donald Trump.
White House spokesperson Steven Cheung in a post on X said that President Trump will continue making peace deals, ending wars, and saving lives, and accusing the Nobel Committee of choosing politics over peace.
“President Trump will continue making peace deals, ending wars, and saving lives. He has the heart of a humanitarian, and there will never be anyone like him who can move mountains with the sheer force of his will. The Nobel Committee proved they place politics over peace,” Cheung said.
Machado, a 58-year-old industrial engineer, was announced winner on Friday for fighting dictatorship in the country when she was blocked in 2024 by Venezuela’s courts from running for president and thus challenging President Nicolas Maduro, who has been in power since 2013.
Maduro, whose 12 years in office have been marked by deep economic and social crisis, was sworn in for a third term in January this year, despite a six-month-long election dispute, international calls for him to stand aside and an increase in the U.S. reward offered for his capture.
“When authoritarians seize power, it is crucial to recognise courageous defenders of freedom who rise and resist,” the Norwegian Nobel Committee said in its citation.
Machado is the first Venezuelan to win the Nobel Peace Prize and the sixth from Latin America.
In the run-up to this year’s award, Trump repeatedly declared that he deserved to win but experts on the award said Trump was very unlikely to win as his policies were seen as dismantling the international world order the Nobel committee cherishes.
Trump, who claimed to have ended eight wars since beginning his second term in office on January 20, 2025, had earlier stated that it would be a “big insult” to the United States if he did not receive the Nobel Peace Prize.
The head of the Nobel Committee, Watne Frydnes, declined to specify what it would take for Trump or any other individual to win the prize in the future, or whether efforts to end the conflict in Gaza could result in an award in 2026.
The committee made its final decision before the announcement on Wednesday of a ceasefire and hostage exchange deal, which marked the first phase of Trump’s initiative to end the war in Gaza.
The Peace Prize is the fifth Nobel announced this week, following those for literature, chemistry, physics, and medicine.
The Nobel Peace Prize, valued at 11 million Swedish crowns approximately $1.2 million, presented in Oslo on December 10, the anniversary of the death of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, who established the awards in his 1895 will.
Nanji is an investigative journalist with the ICIR. She has years of experience in reporting and broadcasting human angle stories, gender inequalities, minority stories, and human rights issues. She has documented sexual war crimes in armed conflict, sex for grades in Nigerian Universities, harmful traditional practices and human trafficking.