Despite openly campaigning for the award, President Donald Trump’s hopes of becoming a Nobel laureate were dashed on Friday morning.The award instead went to Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado — also known as Venezuela’s Iron Lady — for promoting democracy in her country.The Norwegian Nobel Institute in Oslo awarded the 58-year-old Machado the prize 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.”The Nobel Committee said before the announcement that there were 338 candidates, 244 of whom were individuals and 94 others that were organizations.Trump will feel snubbed as he brokered a deal between Israel and the United Arab Emirates in his first term in office. This year, he was nominated for various agreements he negotiated to resolve conflicts, particularly in the Middle East.The White House responded to the Nobel Committee’s decision, saying they were playing politics.."The Nobel Committee has proven they place politics over peace," White House Communications Director Steven Cheung said on X.It comes as no surprise that the Nobel Committee has decided not to recognize Trump.Earlier in the year, he said that he would “never” win the esteemed prize, which has previously been won by four former US presidents — Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Jimmy Carter, and Barack Obama.“They will never give me a Nobel Peace Prize,” Trump said during a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on Feb. 4.“It’s too bad. I deserve it, but they will never give it to me.”Netanyahu had said he would nominate Trump for the prize due to his role in the Abraham Accords during a White House visit in July..Upon hearing the news of Trump’s snub, Russian president Vladimir Putin said, “This award has lost its credibility. The committee is discussing the prize for people who have done nothing for the world.”“[Trump] solved complex problems, crises that had lasted for decades.”.Trish Regan, a journalist and co-founder of the investment firm 76 Research, took to social media, saying: “The Nobel Prize Committee has jumped the shark. Much like Harvard is no longer Harvard… the Nobel Prize is no longer Nobel. Both have traded excellence for politics.“Nothing against Maria Corina Machado — but ignoring Donald Trump’s global impact? So telling.”
