The chair of the Nobel Peace Prize committee has rejected President Trump’s public push to win the award, saying that the committee’s decisions are based only on “courage and integrity.”

Jørgen Watne Frydnes made the remark while announcing Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado as the 2025 Peace Prize winner, calling her “an extraordinary example of civilian courage” against a brutal regime.

Frydnes said the Nobel Committee’s work follows the will of Alfred Nobel and is guided by past laureates’ examples of bravery. The decision comes after weeks of Trump’s lobbying, claiming credit for global peace efforts, including the Abraham Accords.

Trump’s communications director, Steven Cheung, accused the committee of choosing “politics over peace,” insisting that Trump “will continue making peace deals” and “move mountains with the sheer force of his will.”

Frydnes praised Machado’s courage in remaining in Venezuela despite danger, saying her stand highlights the global decline of democracy. “Democracy is a precondition for peace,” he said. “We must support democratic forces for the sake of peace.”

The Nobel Peace Prize winner gets 11 million Swedish kronor, which is equal to approximately USD 1.16 million. Peace Prize winners have sometimes been controversial, including Henry Kissinger (1973), Yasser Arafat (1994), and Barack Obama (2009). In each of these cases critics have argued the the recipient of the award was undeserving.

Sources: The Hill, news agencies.