The 2025 Nobel Peace Prize is a testament to the power of an idea. María Corina Machado’s unwavering vision of a democratic Venezuela ultimately proved more compelling to the Nobel committee than the portfolio of transactional deals offered by Donald Trump.
Machado’s Nobel victory is not based on a single, signed agreement. It is based on her relentless promotion of an idea: that the people of Venezuela deserve a government that is free, fair, and representative. This powerful, aspirational vision has sustained her movement for years.
Donald Trump’s candidacy, on the other hand, was based on a series of concrete products—the deals. While tangible, these deals do not necessarily represent a coherent, underlying idea about the nature of peace, other than the pragmatic desire to stop conflict.
The Nobel committee has often awarded the prize to those who champion a powerful, transformative idea—be it Martin Luther King Jr.’s vision of racial equality or the anti-nuclear idea of last year’s winner, Nihon Hidankyo.
In a contest between a powerful idea and a series of powerful deals, the idea won. The committee has bet that the long-term vision of a democratic society is a more profound contribution to peace than any single, negotiated settlement.