Better luck next time…
On Friday morning, the Nobel Committee awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to Venezuela’s opposition leader María Corina Machado, passing over President Donald Trump who has been openly vying for the award.
The chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Jørgen Watne Frydnes, pushed back against suggestions that this year’s Nobel Peace Prize decision was made to spite President Donald Trump’s public campaign for the award.
Frydnes was asked directly just moments after he announced this year’s prize would go to Venezuela’s opposition leader María Corina Machado, whether Trump’s repeated insistence that he “deserves” the prize had affected deliberations.
A reporter in the room asked: “During the past months, U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly said he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize and he’d like to have it. He even said it would be an insult to the United States if he doesn’t get it. What [do you], as chairman of the Nobel Peace Prize committee, think of this? And how has this campaign-like activity by the president and his supporters, domestically and internationally, affected the deliberation and thinking in the committee?”
He replied: “In the long history of the Nobel Peace Prize, I think this committee has seen many types of campaign, media attention. We receive thousands and thousands of letters every year of people wanting to say what, for them, leads to peace. This committee sits in a room filled with the portraits of all laureates and that room is filled with both courage and integrity. So we base only our decision on the work and the will of Alfred Nobel.”
Trump’s supporters had pressed the committee to recognise his 20-point Gaza peace plan and his claimed role in “ending seven wars.” But despite a flurry of last-minute lobbying, including from families of Israeli hostages, Trump’s campaign failed.
However, the committee also chose a figure who had previously praised the president in a nuance that could blunt some of the political backlash. In past public remarks, Machado thanked Trump for his “commitment to freedom and democracy in Venezuela.”
She also featured on this year’s TIME magazine list of the “100 Most Influential People” where Secretary of State Marco Rubio called her “the personification of resilience, tenacity, and patriotism.”
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The Trump administration is being praised for its efforts in securing a landmark peace deal between Israel and Hamas that will see all remaining hostages brought home on Monday.
Under the first phase of the agreement, Israel will release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for all remaining hostages, both living and dead. Israel will also withdraw its troops from most of Gaza, removing themselves behind a “yellow line” during a 24-hour ceasefire that has already begun.
At the end of the ceasefire, a 72-hour clock will begin, during which Hamas must release all remaining hostages. Only 20 remaining hostages are believed to be alive, along with the 28 who are deceased and their bodies “scattered across Gaza” according to negotiators.
Jerusalem will also authorize the release of some 1,700 Gazans arrested after the October 2023 attacks, along with roughly 250 Palestinians serving life sentences, under the first phase of the plan presented by President Donald Trump late last month.
President Donald Trump announced the deal on Wednesday night, hailing assistance from Qatar, Egypt and Turkey.
