Trump loses out on Nobel Peace Prize after landmark Gaza deal—goes to Venezuelan activist instead

President Donald Trump was not awarded the Nobel Peace Prize despite his ongoing efforts and success at bringing peace to a number of conflicts, as well as striking a deal that could see a permanent ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, with all Hamas-held hostages being released. The award has instead gone to Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado.

The prize was decided just two days before Trump announced the Israel-Hamas peace deal, something that the New York Post said could have prevented him from being chosen for the award.

The five-member Norwegian Nobel Committee came to the decision on Monday before the announcement from Trump.

“We receive thousands and thousands of letters every year of people wanting to say what — for them — leads to peace,” Nobel Peace Prize Committee chair Jørgen Watne Frydnes said of the decision. “This committee sits in a room filled with the portraits of all laureates. That room is filled with both courage and integrity. We base only our decision on the work and will of Alfred Nobel.”

Machado, who is known as “Venezuela’s ‘Iron Lady,'” was awarded the prize after she has been in hiding for 14 months after the Maduro regime in Venezuela declared victory in an election that was disputed both by the United States as well as the European Union.

“The Nobel Peace Prize of 2025 goes to a brave and committed champion of peace. To a woman who keeps the flame of democracy glowing amid a growing darkness,” Frydnes said. “As the leader of the democratic forces in Venezuela, Maria Carina Machado is one of the most extraordinary examples of civilian courage in Latin America in recent times.”

When the deal made by Trump was secured, crowds in Gaza as well as in Israel were seen chanting Trump’s name in the streets, with some calling for a “Nobel Prize to Trump!”

Since he was elected, Trump has coordinated a number of conflicts coming to an end, including between Cambodia and Thailand in July, Ethiopia and Egypt in June 2025, and was able to take out Iran's nuclear power plants as the state sponsor of terror was inching closer to getting a nuclear bomb, all without the deaths of any American soldiers.