On October 10, 2025, the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced Venezuelan opposition leader and democracy advocate María Corina Machado as the recipient of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. The decision, while celebrated in many corners of the international community, triggered a fierce backlash from supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump, who had openly lobbied for the honor and believed his recent diplomatic achievements—especially in the Middle East—made him the obvious choice.
Trump, who has long coveted the Nobel Peace Prize, found himself in an uncomfortable spotlight as his allies and base erupted on social media. Laura Loomer, a far-right activist and confidant of Trump, didn’t mince words: "What an absolute joke. Everyone knows President Trump deserves the Nobel Peace Prize. More affirmative action nonsense." She wasn’t alone. Conservative commentator Eric Daugherty called the decision "unbelievable." The MAGA Voice account, which boasts 1.3 million followers on X (formerly Twitter), ranted, "Some random person that nobody knows, Maria Machado, just won the Nobel Peace Prize. THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE IS A JOKE. Anyone with a brain knows Donald Trump should have won. TRUMP COULD HAVE CURED CANCER. SUCH A JOKE."
Other Trump supporters echoed these sentiments, with some questioning Machado’s global impact compared to Trump’s. One user, TheInnovatorX, posted, "She fought for democracy in Venezuela, a noble pursuit but not good enough for the Nobel Peace Prize let's be serious here. Trump ended literal wars with billions of lives on the line... This is woke bullshit." Another, MAGA’s the fix, wrote, "The Nobel Peace Prize is absolute garbage now. Obama got it for doing jack shit, and now they hand it to some nobody, María Corina Machado, who hasn’t done 1/1000th of what Trump’s achieved; ending wars, brokering peace deals. It’s nothing more than a Cracker Jacks prize!"
But while indignation dominated many right-leaning circles, some social media users pointed out a crucial technicality: nominations for the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize closed on January 31, 2025, just days after Trump began his second term. As the Norwegian Nobel Committee’s website notes, nominations for the 2026 prize will only open in mid-October 2025. This timeline, some argued, made Trump’s 2025 accomplishments ineligible for consideration this year—though that explanation did little to calm the outrage.
Amid the uproar, Trump himself tried to strike a measured tone, but his disappointment was clear. According to The Daily Beast, the president claimed that María Corina Machado had called him personally after the announcement. “The person who actually got the Nobel Prize called today, called me, and said ‘I’m accepting this in honor of you, because you really deserved it.’ A really nice thing to do,” Trump said on Friday. While this statement could not be independently verified, it reflected Trump’s ongoing effort to link his legacy to the prestigious award.
White House Communications Director Steven Cheung was less diplomatic, blasting the Nobel Committee for choosing "politics over peace." Cheung’s criticism was echoed by many in the administration, who viewed the decision as a snub of Trump’s efforts to broker a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas—a deal agreed upon just hours before the Nobel announcement, based on Trump’s 20-point proposal. The president’s supporters credited him with ending eight wars in ten months, including the contentious Gaza conflict, and argued that these achievements dwarfed those of previous laureates.
As Trump departed for Tel Aviv on October 12 to tout the Gaza peace deal, he remained visibly preoccupied with the Nobel snub. On his social media platform, Truth Social, he shared a screenshot of a post by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who had endorsed Trump for the prize. “Give @realDonaldTrump the Nobel Peace Prize - he deserves it! 🏅” Netanyahu’s official X account posted on October 9, accompanied by an AI-generated image of the prime minister bestowing a golden medal on Trump. The president referenced this endorsement to reporters aboard Air Force One: "[Netanyahu] just put me up for the Nobel prize. So you know, I don’t know what it means with the Nobel prize but he put me up."
When asked about how the Gaza deal would fit into his legacy, Trump responded, “This will be my eighth war that I’ve solved. I’m good at solving wars. I’m good at making peace and it’s an honor to do it. I’ve saved millions of lives.” But he circled back to the Nobel, adding, “Now in all fairness to the Nobel committee, it was for 2024. And this was picked for 2024. But there are those that say you could make an exception because a lot of things happened during ’25 that are done and complete and great.” Still, he insisted, “But I did this not for Nobel. I did this for saving lives.”
The president’s itinerary underscored the high stakes: he was scheduled to address the Israeli Knesset and meet with families of hostages on Monday, October 13, before heading to Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, for a summit on the peace deal. The timing of the ceasefire—arrived at just hours before the Nobel announcement—was a point of pride for Trump’s team, who argued that the committee should have recognized his role in ending the conflict.
Yet the Nobel Committee’s decision was final, and the controversy reignited long-standing debates about the prize’s criteria and political overtones. Critics from Trump’s camp accused the committee of bias, with some going so far as to call it a "worthless trinket" and a "popularity contest." Others, pointing to Barack Obama’s 2009 win early in his presidency, suggested the committee had a history of rewarding style over substance. Still, defenders of the committee noted that the nomination process and deadlines are clear and that Machado’s recognition reflected her years-long struggle for democracy in Venezuela—a cause that, in the eyes of many, embodied the spirit of the Nobel Peace Prize.
For Trump and his supporters, however, the outcome was a bitter pill. As one user put it, "You gave this prize to someone that nobody’s ever heard about! The only person that was worthy to receive this prize is the president of the United States - Donald J. Trump!! Your committee is a joke!" Meanwhile, the world watched as both the Nobel laureate and the U.S. president continued their work—one in Venezuela, the other on the international stage—each pursuing a vision of peace in their own way.
With the dust still settling and nominations for the 2026 prize just around the corner, the debate over who truly deserves the world’s most famous peace award is far from over.
