In the face of fury from the White House the head of the Nobel Peace Prize has tried to justify not giving the gong to President Trump despite his work brokering the Israel-Hamas peace deal. Trump has never made it a secret he coverts the prestigious humanitarian award, which has been awarded to four previous American presidents, including Barack Obama, who Trump said “got a prize for doing nothing”.
Donald Trump’s administration have said his record earns him the right to the Nobel Peace Prize and claim he has ended seven wars, eight including if the Israel-Hamas ceasefire holds. Those wars or conflicts also include; Israel-Iran, India-Pakistan, Democratic Republic of Congo-Rwanda, Cambodia-Thailand, Egypt-Ethiopia, Armenia-Azerbaijan, and Serbia vs Kosovo.
But Jørgen Watne Frydnes, chair of the Norwegian Nobel committee, announced today (Friday) the Nobel Peace Prize would be awarded to Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado won the Nobel Peace Prize for her struggle to achieve a democratic transition in the South American nation. Shortly afterwards, Tump shared a clip on social media where he was compared to Winston Churchill.
The video featuring Fox News contributor, Newt Gingrich, showed him saying “I think that President Trump is now moving in to be a world figure in the sense that President Franklin Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill were.”
White House spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a post on X on Friday morning that “President Trump will continue making peace deals around the world, ending wars, and saving lives.” He added that “the Nobel Committee proved they place politics over peace.”
BAsked about lobbying for and by President Trump for him to win the prize, Mr Watne Frydnes said: “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.
“This committee sits in a room filled with the portraits of all 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.”
Hours after Friday’s announcement, Ms Machado wrote on X that “today, more than ever, we count on President Trump, the people of the United States, the peoples of Latin America, and the democratic nations of the world as our principal allies to achieve Freedom and democracy.” She added: “I dedicate this prize to the suffering people of Venezuela and to President Trump for his decisive support of our cause!”
The peace prize is the only one of the annual Nobel prizes to be awarded in Oslo, Norway. The other prizes are given for physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, as well as Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences.
The Nobel Prize was set up when Swedish businessman and entrepreneur Alfred Nobel died and left the majority of his fortune to the establishment of prizes in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and peace.
Nobel, who invented dynamite, stated in his will that the prizes should be awarded to “those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind.”