US President Donald Trump has claimed that Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who won the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize, personally dedicated the award to him. In his remarks to reporters at the White House on Friday, Trump said Machado thanked him for “saving millions of lives” and supporting her cause during Venezuela’s political crisis.
Reacting to the Nobel Committee’s decision, Trump said, “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.”
Machado, often described as Venezuela’s “Iron Lady,” has been leading the country’s pro-democracy movement. She won the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize for her relentless struggle to ensure a democratic transition from authoritarian rule.
Trump Links Nobel Snub to His Peace Efforts
Trump, who had openly expressed confidence about winning the Nobel Peace Prize, claimed he deserved it for his role in ending multiple global conflicts.
“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,” Trump said, listing conflicts he claimed to have halted, including “Armenia and Azerbaijan, Kosovo and Serbia, Israel and Iran, Egypt and Ethiopia, Rwanda and the Congo.”
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The former Nobel Prize favourite has long argued that his administration’s foreign policy achievements were historic.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also weighed in, calling Trump a deserving candidate for the prestigious award.
In a post on X, Netanyahu wrote, “Give @realDonaldTrump the Nobel Peace Prize — he deserves it!”
The endorsement added fuel to a broader debate in Washington and beyond about the Nobel Committee’s choices and the political weight of the prize.
Nobel Committee Praises Machado as ‘Champion of Peace’
Announcing the award, the Norwegian Nobel Committee described Maria Corina Machado as a “brave and committed champion of peace” who embodies hope amid growing authoritarianism.
“Democracy is a precondition for lasting peace. Machado has spent years working for the freedom of the Venezuelan people,” the Committee said.
The committee also highlighted a global decline in democratic values: “We live in a world where democracy is in retreat, where authoritarian regimes are challenging norms and resorting to violence. Machado has shown that the tools of democracy are also the tools of peace.”
Machado, currently in hiding in Venezuela, was featured earlier this year in Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of 2025 list.
