Pragmatic power was on display when Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado walked into the White House carrying her Nobel peace medal and presented it to US President Donald Trump. The gesture was not about metal or ceremony.
“There was a certain moment in the trip, in the boat, where… I was hurt because the waves were very high, over six feet,” Machado told reporters at a Washington news conference held at the Heritage Foundation think-tank.
Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado’s sudden appearance in Oslo was not simply a personal triumph after months in hiding; it was a calculated political act that reopened Venezuela’s unresolved democratic question.
Machado dedicated the award "to the suffering people of Venezuela and to President Trump for his decisive support of our cause!"
Trump had claimed to have ended seven wars and garnered support from notable figures like Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The 2025 Nobel Peace Prize had 338 total nominations this year; 244 individuals and 94 organizations. That’s a rise from 286 nominations in 2024, though still short of the 2016 record of 376.
