WASHINGTON: The White House lashed out at the Norwegian Nobel Committee on Friday after it awarded the peace prize to Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado and overlooked US President Donald Trump.
"The Nobel Committee proved they place politics over peace," White House Director of Communications Steven Cheung said on X.
"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."
Since returning to the White House for his second term in January, Trump had repeatedly insisted that he deserved the Nobel for his role in resolving numerous conflicts -- a claim observers say is broadly exaggerated.
Trump restated his claim on the eve of the peace prize announcement, saying that his brokering of the first phase of a ceasefire in Gaza this week was the eighth war he had ended.
But he added on Thursday: "Whatever they do is fine. I know this: I didn't do it for that, I did it because I've saved a lot of lives."
Nobel Prize experts in Oslo had insisted in the run-up to Friday's announcement that Trump had no chance, noting that his "America First" policies run counter to the ideals of the Peace Prize as laid out in Alfred Nobel's 1895 will creating the award.
Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who on Friday won the Nobel Peace Prize, said she was confident the opposition would succeed in securing a peaceful transition to democracy in her country.
"We're not there yet. We're working very hard to achieve it, but I'm sure that we will prevail," she told Kristian Berg Harpviken, the director of the Nobel Institute and secretary of the Nobel Committee, when he called to inform her that she had won the 2025 prize.
In a video of the call posted on X by the Nobel Foundation, Harpviken could be seen trying to hold back tears, his voice cracking as he broke the news to her, waking her in the middle of the night.
"This is certainly the biggest recognition to our people that certainly deserve it," she said, adding: "I am just, you know, one person. I certainly do not deserve this."
Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro was re-elected in 2024 in an election numerous countries said was rigged, and which Machado was barred from despite enormous popularity in the polls.
The Nobel Committee honoured her "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."
