US President Donald Trump has missed out on the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize despite public support from some political circles. Instead, the honour has gone to Venezuelan democracy activist Maria Corina Machado. The announcement immediately set off a wave of memes and commentary on social media, particularly on X.
(Also read: Donald Trump misses out on Nobel Peace Prize despite ‘stopping’ eight wars. Here's why)
Check out the hilarious memes here:
Since returning to office in January, Trump had openly lobbied for the prize. He repeatedly claimed that he prevented eight wars and argued that his role in brokering peace between Israel and Hamas, effectively ending the two-year-long Gaza conflict, made him a strong candidate. The Republican leader also insisted he had stopped a major escalation between India and Pakistan earlier this year, a claim that New Delhi has firmly denied. Despite these assertions, the Nobel Committee did not award him the accolade.
Maria Corina Machado wins Nobel Peace Prize
{{/usCountry}}Since returning to office in January, Trump had openly lobbied for the prize. He repeatedly claimed that he prevented eight wars and argued that his role in brokering peace between Israel and Hamas, effectively ending the two-year-long Gaza conflict, made him a strong candidate. The Republican leader also insisted he had stopped a major escalation between India and Pakistan earlier this year, a claim that New Delhi has firmly denied. Despite these assertions, the Nobel Committee did not award him the accolade.
Maria Corina Machado wins Nobel Peace Prize
{{/usCountry}}The Nobel Committee recognised Maria Corina Machado for what it described as “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”.
Who is Maria Corina Machado
Born on 7 October 1967, Maria Corina Machado is the leader of the Vente Venezuela party and a trained industrial engineer. She entered politics after co-founding Sumate, a civil society organisation advocating for free and fair elections.
Machado became a national figure when she was elected to the Venezuelan National Assembly in the 2010–2015 election, where she secured the highest number of votes among all candidates. She served in the Assembly from 2011 until 2014 and has since remained a central figure in Venezuela’s opposition politics.
In 2004, as vice president of Sumate, she campaigned for a recall referendum against then-President Hugo Chavez. Although she faced investigations for treason and conspiracy due to foreign funding, Machado continued to push for democratic reforms.
Reflecting on her journey in a Washington Post interview, she once said, “Something clicked. I had this unsettling feeling that I could not stay at home and watch the country get polarised and collapse... We had to keep the electoral process but change the course, to give Venezuelans the chance to count ourselves, to dissipate tensions before they built up. It was a choice of ballots over bullets.”