The White House has reacted angrily after US President Donald Trump was overlooked for the prestigious Nobel peace prize.

The Nobel Committee named Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado for fighting dictatorship in her country.

Machado, who is in hiding, moved to appease Trump by dedicating her prize to “the suffering people of Venezuela and to President Trump for his decisive support of our cause”.

Trump shared her post praising him, but has not spoken about how he feels at missing out.

The US president had been vocal about his desire to win the award, and his supporters and some world leaders, like Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu, said they were nominating him.

Many of Trump’s nominations were submitted after the deadline of February 1, 2025 — less than two weeks after Trump took office — and will reportedly count towards next year’s Nobel prize.

White House press secretary Steven Cheung blasted the decision not to name Trump as the 2025 Nobel laureate just days after Trump announced a ceasefire breakthrough in Gaza.

Cheung said the Nobel Committee “proved they place politics over peace”.

“President Trump will continue making peace deals, ending wars, and saving lives.

“He has the heart of a humanitarian, and there will never be anyone like him who can move mountains with the sheer force of his will.”

Machado’s reaction to her win was shared on social media by the Nobel Committee which recorded their phone call.

“Oh my God … I have no words,” Machado told the secretary of the award body, Kristian Berg Harpviken.

“I thank you so much but I hope you understand this is a movement, this is an achievement of a whole society. I am just one person. I certainly do not deserve it,” she added.

Machado, a 58-year-old industrial engineer, was blocked in 2024 by Venezuela’s courts from running for president and thus challenging President Nicolas Maduro, who has been in power since 2013.

Marco Rubio, now Trump’s secretary of state, nominated Machado for the Peace Prize together with a group of US members of Congress in August 2024, when he was still a senator.

Trump is a critic of Venezuela’s President Maduro and the US does not recognise his government’s legitimacy.

Maduro, whose 12 years in office have been marked by deep economic and social crisis, was sworn in for a third term in January this year despite a six-month-long election dispute, international calls for him to stand aside and an increase in the US reward offered for his capture.

“When authoritarians seize power, it is crucial to recognise courageous defenders of freedom who rise and resist,” the Nobel Committee said in its citation.

It was not immediately clear whether Machado would be able to attend the award ceremony in Oslo on December 10, the anniversary of the death of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel who founded the awards in his 1895 will.

Machado is the first Venezuelan to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

Her three adult children are living abroad for safety reasons.

The United Nations human rights office welcomed the award to Machado as a recognition of “the clear aspirations of the people of Venezuela for free and fair elections”.

The head of the award committee, Joergen Watne Frydnes, said he hoped it would spur the Venezuelan opposition’s work.

“We hope that the entire opposition will have renewed energy to continue the work for a peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy,” Frydnes told Reuters after the announcement.

The lead-up to this year’s prize announcement was dominated by Trump’s repeated public statements that he deserved to win the award.

“The democratic opposition of Venezuela is something that the US has been eager to support. So, in that sense, it would be hard for anyone to constitute this as an insult to Trump,” said Halvard Leira, research director at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs.

The United States has struck several vessels allegedly carrying drugs off the coast of Venezuela in recent weeks.

Trump has determined that the US is engaged in “a non-international armed conflict” with drug cartels, according to a document notifying Congress of its legal justification for deadly US strikes on boats off Venezuela.

Machado has publicly supported the US military operation, telling Fox Noticias last month the operation was “aimed at saving lives” in both countries.

-with AAP