The White House has condemned the Norwegian Nobel Committee's decision to award this year's peace prize to Venezuelan opposition politician María Corina Machado rather than US President Donald Trump. Steven Cheung, the White House communications director, accused the committee of prioritising 'politics over peace'.
Trump's special envoy, Richard Grenell, dismissed the prize as having 'died years ago', while Lara Trump, the president's daughter-in-law, said he 'deserves it more than anyone alive' and claimed the committee suffers from 'Trump Derangement Syndrome'. Trump had openly campaigned for the prize, pushing through a Gaza ceasefire deal before the announcement.
The Norwegian committee praised Machado for defending freedom against authoritarianism, a statement critics viewed as an implicit rebuke of Trump's domestic policies. Christopher Sabatini of Chatham House said Trump would be 'peeved', having 'lobbied shamelessly' for the prize.
Russian President Vladimir Putin defended Trump, saying he 'is really doing a lot to resolve complex crises', though he did not comment on Machado's win. Putin criticised the Nobel committee for past decisions that he said had 'damaged the prestige of this prize'.
