President Donald Trump was not the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, despite his very public campaign to be awarded the honor. Instead, it was Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado who was selected.
Following the news, chairman of the Nobel Peace Prize committee Jørgen Watne Frydnes took questions from reporters — including one who asked him if Trump’s public crusade for the prize impacted their decision.
“In the long history of the Nobel Peace Prize, I think this committee has seen any type of campaign, media attention. We receive thousands and thousands of letters every year of people wanting to say what, for them, leads to peace,” Frydnes responded. “This committee sits in a room filled with the portraits of old 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.”
Machado received the Nobel Prize for her work at defending democracy in the face of her country’s authoritarianism, despite having to go into hiding to do so.
“She is receiving the Nobel Peace 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 Norwegian Nobel Committee shared in a statement. “As the leader of the democracy movement in Venezuela, María Corina Machado is one of the most extraordinary examples of civilian courage in Latin America in recent times.”
It’s worth noting Trump himself actually celebrated Machado’s work in a January Truth Social post, calling her a “freedom fighter.”
