Donald Trump has spoken out about the Nobel Peace Prize after he failed to win it this year.
The US president had made it very clear that he really wanted to win one of the accolades, having complained loudly after completing a diplomatic deal that 'I won't get a Nobel Prize for this', but it turns out that 2025 just wasn't to be his year.
He's really been banging this drum for a while, moaning: "I won’t get a Nobel Peace Prize for stopping the War between India and Pakistan … for stopping the War between Serbia and Kosovo … for keeping Peace between Egypt and Ethiopia … and I won’t get a Nobel Peace Prize for doing the Abraham Accords in the Middle East."
One of the ways other world leaders have found to curry favour with Trump and thus the current US government is to suggest they might nominate him for the prize.
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However, it was yesterday (10 October) announced that María Corina Machado of Venezuela would be this year's recipient, with her honoured for her efforts to stand up for democracy in her country which is currently ruled over by an authoritarian government.
The committee explained that they did not bow to 'media tension', which some have seen as a reference to Trump's clear campaigning to get one, and instead based the recipient of the prize only on 'the work and the will of Alfred Nobel', who gave his name to the prestigious accolade.
Responding to the announcement that the Nobel Peace Prize had gone to someone other than Donald Trump, White House Director of Communications Steven Cheung hit out at the committee.
He claimed that not giving Trump the award 'proved they place politics over peace', but the US president had his own response to the announcement.
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Speaking yesterday, Trump said that Machado had called him afterwards and dedicated her Nobel Prize to him.
"The person who actually got the Nobel Prize called today, called me, and said 'I'm accepting this in honour of you, because you really deserved it'," Trump explained.
He said the call was 'a really nice thing to do', then joked that he just about stopped himself from telling Machado 'then give it to me' as he quipped that 'I think she might have'.
Machado did genuinely dedicate her prize to Trump, along with the people of Venezuela.
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She said: "We are on the threshold of victory and today.
"More than ever, we count on President Trump, the people of the United States, the peoples of Latin America, and the democratic nations of the world as our principal allies to achieve freedom and democracy.
"I dedicate this prize to the suffering people of Venezuela and to President Trump for his decisive support of our cause!"
Machado's opposition to the current Venezuelan government does put her on the same, or at least a similar, page to Trump on this particular issue, with the US president putting a $50 million (£37 million) bounty on Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro's head.
However, he's also targeted other Venezuelans living in the US and sent them to one of the worst prisons in the world even if they'd never committed crimes.
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Meanwhile, the United Nations has condemned the US for destroying boats off the coast of Venezuela and killing those on board for allegedly being part of drug smuggling operations without due process or investigation.
Topics: Donald Trump, World News, US News
Joe Harker