U.S. President Donald Trump said that Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado had told him she was accepting the award in his honor, adding that he did not ask her to give it to him, though he believed she might have wanted to.
According to details, President Donald Trump spoke on Friday with María Corina Machado, who won the Nobel Peace Prize, after his administration had condemned the committee’s decision not to award it to him.
Trump has never hidden his desire to win the prize. Many world leaders have also said that he deserves it. These calls have intensified recently as his Gaza peace plan gained momentum. However, according to the prize’s official website, the nomination window for the year closes at the end of January.
On Friday, the Nobel Committee announced that the 2025 award would go to Machado for promoting democratic rights in Venezuela and for “her struggle to achieve a fair and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy.”
In an interview with the Spanish newspaper El País, Machado confirmed that she had spoken with the U.S. President but declined to share details of their conversation. Donald Trump confirmed the call, adding that she was “very nice” during the conversation.
“The person who actually received the Nobel Prize called me today and said, ‘I am accepting this in your honor because you truly deserved it,’” the President said.
“A very nice thing to do. I didn’t, I didn’t say, ‘Then give it to me,’ though I think she might have. She was very nice,” Trump joked.
“I’ve helped her,” Trump added. “She needs a lot of help in Venezuela—it’s a total disaster.” However, the White House had earlier condemned the Nobel Committee’s decision not to give the award to the U.S. President.
“The Nobel Committee has proven that they prioritize politics over peace,” White House Communications Director Steven Cheung said in a social media post.
