Steven Cheung, the communications director, takes issue with the decision to award María Corina Machado. Trump has repeatedly stated that he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize.

President Trump will continue to make peace agreements around the world, end wars and save lives : Steven Cheung, White House communications director, said this in a post on X in which he openly criticizes the choice to award María Corina Machado  the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize.

There will never be anyone like him, capable of moving mountains with sheer willpower. The Nobel Committee has demonstrated that it puts politics before peace, Cheung adds. These are not random statements: Trump has repeatedly stated that he aspires to the prize, indeed that he considers it his duty for his efforts to resolve international conflicts. In the Middle East, but not only. His was among the 338 nominations submitted for the award this year. It's not the first time it's been submitted, but this year too, it didn't convince the Nobel Committee. Hence Cheung's controversy.

Trump and his belief that he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize

In Corriere of October 10, Matteo Persivale reviewed the numerous circumstances in which the US leader spoke of his ambition to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

The president has never hidden the fact that he believes he deserves it, and has for a long time: this would therefore be, for him, yet another time in which he has been robbed of the prize, unlike Barack Obama, who was awarded in 2009, as soon as he entered the White House.

Trump's magnificent obsession, explains Persivale, began during his first term. The president first ran for office on June 13, 2018, after the Singapore summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (Everyone says I should win the Nobel Peace Prize). He then returned to the topic several times, as Persivale summarizes: On September 9, 2020, after being nominated by a Norwegian parliamentarian for mediating the historic Abraham Accords, he tweeted:"Trump nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize." He later explained that"I should win... because no one has done what I've done". In an appearance on Fox News, he clarified that he"absolutely" deserves it for ending "endless wars."

Since his re-election, Trump has reiterated this point several times: he said he deserved the Nobel Peace Prize in February, after receiving Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu (I deserve the Nobel Peace Prize, but they'll never give it to me); in June, after the ceasefire between India and Pakistan (I should have gotten it four or five times) and in mid-August, during a speech on the US-brokered agreements between Congo-Rwanda and Azerbaijan-Armenia (I deserve it, I ended seven wars). And then again a few weeks ago, at the UN General Assembly, when he declared: Everyone says I should get the Nobel Peace Prize, I ended seven interminable wars. On September 30, he returned to the subject, joking about the Gaza peace plan: If it works, we will have stopped eight wars in eight months. Not bad. Will we get the Nobel? Denying him, he said, would be a grave insult to the US. The last dig dates back to the day before yesterday: Maybe they'll find a reason not to give it to me... I deserve it for doing what no one had ever done.

The timing of the decision

There was an intense lobbying campaign to support his candidacy. However, the Nobel Committee, composed of five members appointed by the Norwegian parliament, reached a different conclusion.

For Cheung, as mentioned, politics has been put before peace. The issue, at least regarding the ceasefire agreement in Gaza, is also one of timing.

The committee's final decision was made on Monday afternoon. The name of the winner of the Nober Peace Prize, therefore, had already been decided several days before the Gaza peace agreement, which was reached on the night between Wednesday and Thursday.

The Nobel Committee's response: We relied on courage and integrity.

In response to the controversy over Trump's failure to win, the Committee released a clear-cut statement.

In the long history of this prize, we read, we have seen various types of campaigns and attention around us. But the Committee sits in a room hung with portraits of those who came before us, and who made choices in the name of courage and integrity. We have acted on this basis. Our decision is based solely on the work and will of Alfred Nobel.

Putin's video posted on Truth: Trump deserved the Nobel Prize

Donald Trump's disappointment didn't stop with his initial statements. In the afternoon, the president posted a video on his social media account, Truth, in which Vladimir Putin speaks about his work in resolving disputes and his failure to win the Nobel Peace Prize: Trump is doing a lot to resolve today's complicated issues that have persisted for years or decades, but it's not up to me to say whether he deserved the Nobel Peace Prize. Putin explicitly recalled Donald's commitment to trying to find a solution to the conflict in Ukraine. Accompanying the video, Trump added: Thank you, President Putin.

The winner's words:"We've never counted on Trump like we do today."

Meanwhile, María Corina Machado, fresh from her Nobel Prize, thanks the Venezuelan people for the recognition (which she attributes to the entire Venezuelan people) and says she is counting on Trump, who called to congratulate her, and on the United States : We are on the threshold of victory and today more than ever we have President Trump, the people of the United States, the peoples of Latin America, and the democratic nations of the world as our main allies in achieving freedom and democracy. Venezuela will be free!