Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado is leading a demonstration against the re-inauguration of authoritarian President Maduro this Friday.
Jesus Vargas | Picture Alliance | Getty Images
The White House on Friday criticized the Nobel Committee after it declined to pick President Donald Trump for the organization’s vaunted peace prize.
But the prize’s actual recipient, Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, said she was partly dedicating the award to Trump for supporting her efforts to promote democracy in her country.
Machado said in an X post that her cause of achieving freedom and democracy depends on Trump and other key allies.
“I dedicate this prize to the suffering people of Venezuela and to President Trump for his decisive support of our cause!” she wrote.
Machado’s shoutout came less than three hours after White House communications director Steven Cheung claimed that by snubbing Trump, “The Nobel Committee proved they place politics over peace.”
Trump reportedly called Machado on Friday to congratulate her on receiving the Nobel Peace Prize.
Trump for years has said he deserves the prize, which has been awarded by the Norwegian Nobel Committee more than 100 times since 1901 to honor one person’s work to promote peace.
He has also been openly critical of former President Barack Obama receiving the prize in 2009.
“They gave it to Obama for doing absolutely nothing but destroying our country,” Trump said Thursday.
In recent months, Trump has frequently said that he ended seven wars — a claim that has been disputed by fact checkers.
After Israel and Hamas agreed to the first phase of a peace plan this week, Trump claimed, “This would be number eight.”
A number of Trump’s Republican allies have advocated for him to get the prize, though the nomination deadline for the 2025 award ended less than two weeks into his current presidential term.
Asked about the campaign for Trump, Nobel Committee Chair Jørgen Watne Frydnes said that his panel is used to receiving media attention and “thousands and thousands of letters” every year.
“This committee sits in a room filled with the portraits of all laureates and that room is filled with both courage and integrity,” Frydnes said at a press conference.
“We base only our decision on the work and the will of Alfred Nobel.”
