White House Spokesman, Steven Cheung has in a post on X criticized the Nobel prize committee after US President, Donald Trump missed out on the Nobel Peace Prize.
Cheung stated that the Nobel Committee “proved they place politics over peace” with the decision to award the Nobel Peace Prize to a Venezuelan opposition leader, María Corina Machado instead of Trump.
“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.”
Steven Cheung
The Nobel Peace Prize for 2025 has been awarded to María Corina Machado for “her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy.” Machado is a leader of the democracy movement in Venezuela.
Machado, 58, a conservative often described as Venezuela’s Iron Lady, has spent the last year living in hiding after her political movement was widely believed to have beaten the country’s President, Nicolás Maduro, in the July 2024 presidential election.
Maduro refused to accept he had lost to Machado’s ally the former diplomat Edmundo González and launched a ferocious political crackdown that forced González into exile and Machado to go underground.
The Nobel committee celebrated Machado’s long struggle for democracy in a statement that called her “one of the most extraordinary examples of civilian courage in Latin America in recent times.”
It also paid tribute to the Venezuelan opposition’s “innovative and brave, peaceful and democratic” push for change during last year’s election, when hundreds of thousands of volunteers mobilised to observe the election and collect detailed tallies showing that González had won.
The Nobel Committee said, “But the regime refused to accept the election result, and clung to power,” the painting a dire picture of life in Venezuela, which has gradually sunk into dictatorship since Maduro was democratically elected in 2013 after the death of his mentor, Hugo Chávez.
“Venezuela has evolved from a relatively democratic and prosperous country to a brutal, authoritarian state that is now suffering a humanitarian and economic crisis.”
Nobel Committee
Trump has made no secret of his desire for a Nobel Peace Prize. Even during his first term, Trump was saying how much he deserved one.
But – aside from the merits of his case – the US President’s hopes were likely to be dashed by the fact that the nomination process ended on January 31, when he had only been in office for 11 days.
In a press conference following the announcement, Nobel Committee Chair, Jørgen Watne Frydnes stressed that the panel’s decisions are grounded solely in the principles outlined by Alfred Nobel.
“In the long history of the Nobel Peace Prize, I think this committee has seen any type of campaigns, media attention. We receive 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 our decision only on the work and will of Alfred Nobel.”
Jørgen Watne Frydnes
Trump’s Achievements In Peacemaking Hailed Amid Nobel Peace Prize Miss
Meanwhile, Israel’s Hostages and Missing Families Forum said that “no leader or organization has done more for peace around the world than (US) President Donald J. Trump,” after this year’s Nobel Peace Prize was announced.
Trump had made it clear that he was hoping to receive the prestigious award and his Gaza ceasefire plan made his ambition appear more likely.
A number of Israeli Nobel Prize winners pledged to support Trump’s bid for the award if he brought about an end to the war. The Hostages and Missing Families Forum had also urged the Nobel Committee to give the prize to Trump.
The forum said in a statement that Trump’s “unprecedented” achievements in peacemaking this past year speak for themselves, and “no award or lack thereof can diminish the profound impact he has had on our families and on global peace.”
“His commitment to bringing every last hostage home and ending this war does not depend on awards or accolades. We will continue to stand with President Trump as he works to complete this mission, and history will record his achievements as the most significant contributions to world peace in our time.”
Hostages and Missing Families Forum
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