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By Kate Plummer
Senior US News Reporter
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President Donald Trump's defeat in this year's Nobel Peace Prize has sparked anger within the Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement.
Instead, Venezuela's opposition leader Maria Corina Machado won on Friday with the committee citing her fight for democracy against President Nicolas Maduro who is considered a dictator.
It came after Trump and his allies campaigned to win the award. Meanwhile, after Israel and Hamas agreed this week to accept the first phase of Trump's peace plan in the region, speculation increased that he might win the coveted prize.
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Writing on X, prominent MAGA figures with large social media followers expressed their disappointment.
Newsweek reached out to the White House by email to comment on this story outside of normal business hours.
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Why It Matters
Trump has long expressed a desire to win the prize, which is awarded each year by the Norwegian Nobel Committee, a five-member body appointed by the Norwegian Parliament. In the past few months, Trump and his allies have argued in support of the president's worthiness as a candidate, citing foreign policy interventions his administration has been involved in including the fledgling Gaza peace deal.
Only four U.S. presidents have won the award, which is among the world's most prominent international honors. President Barack Obama received a Nobel Peace Prize in 2009, eight months into his presidency.
However, 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.
What To Know
Several MAGA figures responded to the news. MAGA Voice, an account with over 1.3 million followers wrote: "Some random person that nobody knows, Maria Machado, just won the Nobel Peace Prize THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE IS A JOKE. Anyone with a brain knows Donald Trump should have won TRUMP COULD HAVE CURED CANCER SUCH A JOKE."
Raylan Givens, a prominent account, wrote: "The idiots from the Nobel Prize committee didn't give the Nobel Peace Prize to President Trump. What a disgrace and total BS."
Right-wing activist Laura Loomer wrote called Machado's win "affirmative action nonsense."
"What an absolute joke. Everyone knows President Trump deserves the Nobel Peace Prize," she said.
Another X user said "the committee has lost all credibility."
Another called it "a slap in the face."
Mario Nawfal, an entrepreneur with over 2.6 million followers, said Trump likely missed out as the deadline for nominations for the prize was in January, just as his second term began.
Indeed, speaking to Newsweek, Scott Lucas who teaches international politics at University College Dublin said Trump not winning the prize was "not a surprise because the nominations closed back in the start January when Trump had only been in office for 11 days and the deliberations of the Nobel committee ended on Monday which was before the ceasefire in Gaza."
He added that it would be difficult for the Trump administration to criticize Machado because she is "a key member of the Venezuelan opposition and supposedly, the Trump administration is very keen on supporting the Venezuelan opposition."
What People Are Saying
The Nobel Committee said Machado had been chosen "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."
What Happens Next
Trump is yet to respond publicly to his defeat.
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