U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday responded to not receiving the Nobel Peace Prize this year, asserting that he had “helped” the 2025 laureate, Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, on numerous occasions.
Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump said Machado personally called him after being announced as the winner and told him she was accepting the honour “in his name.”
“The person who got the Nobel Prize called me today and said, ‘I am accepting this in honour of you because you really deserved it’… I didn’t say, ‘Give it to me,’ though. I think she might have… I’ve been helping her along the way. They needed a lot of help in Venezuela during the disaster. I am happy because I saved millions of lives,” Trump said.
Machado received the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize for her advocacy of democratic rights and her efforts toward a peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy in Venezuela.
Trump, who had anticipated being recognised himself for what he described as his efforts to “end seven wars,” also linked his past peacemaking claims to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.
“I said, ‘Well, what about the seven others? I should get a Nobel Prize for each one.’ So they said, ‘But if you stop Russia and Ukraine, sir, you should be able to get the Nobel.’ I said I stopped seven wars. That’s one war, and that’s a big one,” he told the gathering, citing conflicts he claimed were halted under his leadership — including those involving “Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kosovo and Serbia, Israel and Iran, Egypt and Ethiopia, Rwanda and the Congo.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also voiced support for Trump, writing on X on Thursday, “Give @realDonaldTrump the Nobel Peace Prize — he deserves it!”
In its citation, the Norwegian Nobel Committee described Machado as a “brave and committed champion of peace,” saying the award recognised “a woman who keeps the flame of democracy burning amid a growing darkness.”
“Democracy is a precondition for lasting peace. However, we live in a world where democracy is in retreat, where more and more authoritarian regimes are challenging norms and resorting to violence. Machado has spent years working for the freedom of the Venezuelan people,” the committee said.
It added that “Peace laureate Maria Corina Machado has shown that the tools of democracy are also the tools of peace. She embodies the hope of a different future, one where the fundamental rights of citizens are protected, and their voices are heard.”
According to the Nobel Committee, Machado meets all three criteria laid out in Alfred Nobel’s will for the selection of a Peace Prize laureate.
