US President Donald Trump said he spoke on Friday with Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado shortly after she was named the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize laureate — a decision that sparked irritation within his administration.
The former president, who has openly longed for the award himself, said Machado called him following the announcement. According to Trump, she said she was accepting the prize “in honour” of him, saying he was the one who truly deserved it. “A very nice thing to do,” Trump remarked, adding jokingly that he did not ask her to hand it over, though he hinted she would have, reports agencies.
Machado was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for what the committee described as her unwavering push for a democratic transition in Venezuela and her commitment to peaceful change. Forced into hiding as President Nicolás Maduro intensified his clampdown on dissent, she has insisted her cause is rooted in “ballots over bullets.”
In an interview with El País, Machado confirmed she had spoken with Trump but declined to elaborate on their exchange. In her public statement, she expressed gratitude to him for his support.
Despite her gesture, officials close to Trump quickly voiced frustration. White House communications director Steven Cheung blasted the Nobel Committee, accusing it of prioritising political messaging over genuine efforts for peace. Richard Grenell, Trump’s former envoy for Venezuela, went further, declaring that “the Nobel Prize died years ago.”
Analysts suggested the committee may have been sending a signal — not just to the United States, but also to Machado’s movement. Benjamin Gedan, a former National Security Council official, told CNN that the message was clear: the push for change in Venezuela should remain firmly non-violent, despite Washington’s deployment of military assets in the region under the banner of countering “narcotrafficking,” a move critics say was part of a broader attempt to pressure Maduro.
Trump allies had previously championed Machado’s nomination. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, along with other Florida lawmakers including now-UN Ambassador Mike Waltz, had endorsed her bid in late 2024, praising her as a figure of “moral clarity” and unparalleled resolve. Rubio earlier described her as “the personification of resilience,” saying she never abandoned her fight for a free Venezuela.
Trump himself had once posted that she “MUST stay SAFE and ALIVE,” calling her a freedom fighter battling a collapsing nation. On Friday, Machado dedicated her win “to the suffering people of Venezuela and to President Trump for his decisive support of our cause.”
Yet after the announcement, there were no celebratory statements from Trump’s inner circle — only complaints over what they viewed as a personal snub to the president, whose own foreign policy manoeuvres, especially his Gaza ceasefire efforts, had reignited talk among some world leaders that he should be honoured by Oslo.
Trump, meanwhile, also thanked Russian President Vladimir Putin on social media after the Kremlin leader suggested the current US president had done more than many past laureates to try and resolve major conflicts, even as Russia continues its war in Ukraine. “Thank you to President Putin!” Trump wrote, posting a clip of the speech.
The Nobel Committee’s decision, while hailed globally by human rights advocates, has inadvertently seeded new tension in Washington — between recognition of a Venezuelan dissident’s sacrifice and lingering resentment inside the Trump camp that the prize went elsewhere.
