Donald Trump’s Nobel Peace Prize Dream Crushed—For Now

[Thiệu Ngô]

President Donald Trump lost out on the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize, which instead went to Venezuelan opposition politician Maria Corina Machado.

By James Bickerton

The Nobel Committee, which gives the award, said Machado had been chosen due to 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."

Trump's Nobel Fascination

Trump’s interest in the Nobel Peace Prize is longstanding, with the president speculating he could win it since the first half of his first term.

Speaking to reporters in May 2018, after his administration negotiated the release of three Americans from North Korean captivity, Trump insisted that "everyone" thinks he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize, before adding "but I would never say it."

The following year, in September 2019, Trump told a Pakistani journalist that "I think I’m going to get a Nobel Prize for a lot of things if they gave it out fairly, which they don’t."

Since returning to office in January 2025 Trump’s fascination with the Nobel Peace Prize has only increased.

Speaking in February 2025, after a White House meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump said: "They will never give me a Nobel Peace Prize. I deserve it, but they will never give it to me."

Three months later, in June, Trump argued he had earned the Nobel Peace Prize several times over, commenting: "They should give me the Nobel Prize for Rwanda.

"And if you look to Congo, or you could say Serbia, Kosovo, you can say a lot of them. You could say, I mean, the big one is India and Pakistan. I should’ve gotten it four or five times. I would think the Abraham Accords would be a good one, too. They won’t give me a Nobel Peace Prize because they only give it to liberals."

During Trump’s first term, he oversaw the Abraham Accords, which saw the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan recognize Israel as a legitimate state following U.S. led negotiations.

In late September, during an address to top American generals and admirals, Trump said it would be "a big insult to our country" if he didn’t win this year’s Nobel Peace Prize.

On Wednesday Eric Trump, the president’s second-oldest son, posted "Retweet if you believe @RealDonaldTrump deserves the Nobel Peace Prize" on X. The post received over 40,000 reposts from other platform users.

The Obama Dimension

Trump’s political rise began with his stinging criticism of President Barack Obama, including his early promotion of the discredited "birther" conspiracy theory that America’s first Black president wasn’t really born in the United States, and had provided a fake birth certificate.

It was controversially announced that Obama had won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize in October 2009, just months after his entry to office.

The move came to infuriate Trump, who in April 2011 told Fox New’s Bill O’Reilly: "This guy got the Nobel Peace Prize, and every time I look, he’s going into another country."

Just days before the 2024 presidential election, Trump told a rally in Las Vegas: "They gave Obama the Nobel Prize. He didn’t even know why the hell he got it, right? He still doesn’t. He got elected, and they announced he’s getting the Nobel Prize. I got elected in a much bigger, better, crazier election, but they gave him the Nobel Prize."

Trump's Case

The U.S. president has received a number of nominations for the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize, including from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the governments of Pakistan, Azerbaijan, Rwanda and Cambodia.

Trump was also nominated by Oleksandr Merezhko, the head of Ukraine's parliamentary foreign committee, but this was rescinded as the president failed to secure a ceasefire between Moscow and Kyiv.

During an address to the United Nations General Assembly in September, Trump said he had "ended seven unendable wars."

When asked for details, the White House said Trump had ended conflicts between Armenia and Azerbaijan, Thailand and Cambodia, Israel and Iran, India and Pakistan, Rwanda and Congo, Egypt and Ethiopia, and Serbia and Kosovo.

However, questions have been raised about either Trump role in securing some of these agreements, or over how enduring they are likely to prove.

For example, Indian officials denied Trump was involved in peace talks after violence briefly flared with Pakistan in May, insisting the negotiations took place "directly between India and Pakistan."

In Congo, a ceasefire deal was signed in the White House in June between the country’s government and that of neighboring Rwanda, but it didn’t include the M23 rebel group that had actually been fighting Congolese forces, allegedly with Rwandan support.

The Israel-Iran ceasefire negotiated by Trump in June, after the U.S. bombed Iranian nuclear facilities at the president’s directive, hasn’t solved the underlying issue of Iran’s nuclear program and what damage it suffered is disputed.

Both Israel and Hamas have approved a Trump backed peace plan for Gaza that is intended to see a ceasefire take effect on Saturday, after which Israeli forces will withdraw to predetermined locations and hostages will be released by Hamas in return for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. However discussions are still ongoing about the long term governance of Gaza post war.

Trump has also faced criticism for deploying National Guard troops to major American cities and for airstrikes targeting alleged drug smugglers off the coast of Venezuela, which some critics argue are illegal under international law.

Nobel Prize Rules

The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded each year by the Norwegian Nobel Committee, a five-member body appointed by the Norwegian Parliament. The process begins with nominations, which can be made only by certain qualified individuals—such as national government officials, university professors in relevant fields, previous laureates, and members of international courts.

The deadline for nominations was January 31 only days after Trump’s second presidential inauguration. Thus many of the countries and politicians that said they would nominate Trump would have been too late for this year’s award. The Nobel Committee does have the option of adding additional names during its first meeting, which took place this year on February 28.

According to the BBC the final Nobel Committee meeting to discuss the 2025 award took place on Monday. The committee’s website states that "the decision is final and without appeal."

What People Are Saying

Speaking to Newsweek Mark Shanahan, an American politics expert at the University of Surrey in the U.K., said: "It should be no surprise that Donald Trump didn't win the Nobel Peace Prize this year. Those who actively lobby on their own behalf tend not to find much favor with the Norwegian Nobel Committee. While we're all desperately hoping that peace in Gaza is long and lasting, it's far too precarious yet to award any prizes.

"The judges will have deliberated long and hard as to who is truly deserving of the prize. Trump's record remains questionable. His claims to have stopped seven wars bear little scrutiny and even with Gaza, he spent his 10 months in office before the ceasefire arming the Israeli state and enabling them to prosecute total war.

"Trump always likes to be at the center of his own drama and will doubtless rail against the judges this year. That may still count against him in the future as they weigh up the credibility of his efforts for peace against his craven desire for a global legacy."

Dafydd Townley, an American politics expert at the University of Portsmouth, told Newsweek: "Trump believes that he has done enough to be awarded the prize, but his recent claim in the U.N. that he had been responsible for stopping seven conflicts is tenuous, at best, and downright unbelievable at its worst. Of course, Trump is eager to receive the award because his predecessor, Barack Obama, was honored with it in 2009.

"Ever the narcissist, Trump has no claim to being the greatest President ever, which he himself believes, if he cannot match Obama's record. Of course, should the US-led ceasefire in Gaza develop into a peace treaty and a renegotiated settlement, then he may have a claim in 2026. However, the award panel would undoubtedly have to consider whether a President who is deploying troops onto the streets of his nation's cities to crack down on political opponents is genuinely worthy of the award."

Responding to the Nobel Committee's announcement on X Raylan Givens, a prominent independent journalist and self-styled "Zionist," said: "The idiots from the Nobel Prize committee didn't give the Nobel Peace Prize to President Donald Trump. What a disgrace and total BS [*******."

On X, journalist and Ukraine supporter Pekka Kallioniemi wrote: "The Nobel Peace Prize goes to Venezuelan opposition politician María Corina Machado. Trump must be furious, they ran a massive campaign just a few days before the announcement. But to be fair, he has a good chance of winning in 2026 if the Israel-Palestine peace lasts."

British comedian and free speech campaigner Pat Condell wrote on X: "The Nobel Peace Prize was never worth much. Now it’s worth zero. Everyone knows Trump deserved it. I guess they didn’t want him making an acceptance speech and torching their entire worldview publicly again."

Gaza, Ukraine and a Chance in 2026

While Trump didn’t win the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize, if the Gaza ceasefire he helped negotiate holds and leads to a more lasting peace, he will almost certainly be a candidate in 2026. A number of world leaders and countries said they would nominate Trump after the January 31 deadline for 2025, meaning, if they follow through, their nominations will be considered in 2026.

Trump’s odds of winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 2026 would increase significantly if he can negotiate a ceasefire in the ongoing Ukraine war, the deadliest in Europe since World War II. However, thus far, Russian President Vladimir Putin has rebuffed Trump’s call for an immediate ceasefire, including after a summit between the two men in Alaska in August.