I know there has been a great deal of hueing and crying over the “snub” President Trump received in not getting the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts at creating tranquility across the planet. There is no question that Trump is deserving of the prize.
He should get it, and although the Norwegian bureaucrats in charge of issuing that award are often ridiculously wrong — Yasser Arafat won it one year, for crying out loud — I have absolutely no doubt they will do right by Trump when the time comes. (RELATED: Trump, Nobel, and the Globalism of Oslo)
But let’s remember a little something about the rules of the prize.
Which is that nominations for it typically close on Jan. 31 of the year in which it’s awarded. On Jan. 31, Trump had been president for only 11 days.
The spectacular volume of diplomatic achievements that Trump and his Secretary of State Marco Rubio, as well as the president’s other negotiators like Ric Grenell and Steve Witcoff, hadn’t quite launched at that point.
What they’ve done since is awfully close to unprecedented. As Trump would say, we’ve never seen anything like it. He’s brokered a cessation of no less than eight military conflicts around the world, including the most recent triumph, a ceasefire along the lines of a permanent peace in Gaza. (RELATED: The Nobel Peace Prize Hits Rock Bottom)
Gaza isn’t quite peaceful yet, of course, as Hamas is now slugging it out amid the rubble with other militia groups, which see it as weak enough to poke. But the internal politics of Gaza, such as they are, are best left to the Gazans. Presumably, the world can do business with the survivors of the bulleting, if not the balloting. (RELATED: Blessed Is the Peacemaker)
As I said in the Five Quick Things last week, it’s an amazing achievement for Trump to have shepherded the process as far as he’s managed so far. He’s succeeded where countless American presidents have failed. (RELATED: Five Quick Things: The Glorious Return of the 5QT)
But we have a long way to go before anyone can declare the Gaza situation resolved.
Certainly, Trump will get the Nobel Peace Prize next year based on what he’s done since Jan. 31. In fact, at the signing of the deal in Egypt on Monday, Pakistani prime minister Shehbaz Sharif stepped to the microphone and nominated Trump for the 2026 prize…
Boy, this makes the Liz Warrens of the world look like clowns, doesn’t it?
The words you are looking for are… “Thank you President Trump”
— Gunther Eagleman™ (@GuntherEagleman) October 13, 2025
But Maria Corina Machado, who won this year’s award, dedicated it to Trump…
And in an interview with CBS, she explained why…
The thing to respect about the award going to Machado, and why American patriots and freedom-lovers should rejoice in the award with the anticipation that Trump will get his due next year, is that for her to get the award is an explicit rejection of the Maduro government which stole an election from Machado’s movement and has since acted in ways diametrically opposed to the cause of peace. (RELATED: The Nobel Peace Prize and the Nobel War Prize)
Spreading Marxist rebellion. Hosting Hezbollah, Iranian, and Hamas terrorists. Consolidating the international drug trade under government/regime control. Oppressive subjugation of what Venezuelan people have not fled. (RELATED: Trump Squeezes Maduro’s Narco-State)
And of course, until Trump took office and closed the border, the Maduro regime actively pumped migrants through the Central American corridor into the United States for the purpose of masking the insertion of thousands of Tren de Aragua gangsters, dope dealers, and human traffickers in order to embed their poisonous activities in our cities. (RELATED: US Intelligence Downplays Maduro Partnership With Tren De Aragua)
For the Nobel committee to give Machado the Peace Prize and, in so doing, recognize her efforts to bring freedom and prosperity, not to mention market economics, back to Venezuela is an explicit rejection of that communist regime.
This is an unalloyed good thing. It confers international recognition on the truly legitimate governing party in Venezuela — Machado was thrown off the ballot by the Maduro thugs, but her replacement, Edmundo González Urrutia, ran and won with an estimated more than two-thirds of the vote, though in a brute-force rigging of the election, Team Maduro claimed a close victory — at the expense of the regime.
It’s a repudiation of illegitimacy, crime, and communism.
And it comes at a time when Trump is preparing to press Maduro out of power in Venezuela, hopefully without having to fire a shot.
The United States has moved several military helicopters off the coast of Trinidad and Tobago, just a few miles from the Venezuela, according to a new report.
Citing specialized outlets and forum, Venezuelan outlet El Nacional noted that at least four special ops helicopters and three Black Hawks have been spotted. It added that they could be aboard the Ocean Trader, the converted cargo vessel designed to serve as a special operations mothership.
Originally launched as a commercial roll-on/roll-off cargo ship in 2010, the vessel was later converted under a $73 million U.S. Navy contract to support a wide range of special operations missions. The Ocean Trader is capable of hosting up to 159 special operations forces in addition to its 50-member crew, operating at sea for as long as 45 days before resupply.
It is equipped with helicopter hangars, boat launch bays, aviation fuel stores, workshops, and intelligence facilities, while retaining a commercial appearance intended to blend with merchant traffic.
The development comes as the U.S. continues to beef up its presence in the Caribbean: there are now 10,000 troops deployed in the region, according to a new report. Most are in bases in Puerto Rico.
The New York Times detailed that there are also eight surface warships and a submarine there. Forces have been conducting drills and the U.S. has struck at least four vessels officials claim were carrying drugs that were ultimately set to reach the U.S.
In this context, Venezuela’s authoritarian government activated its “Independence Plan 200,” a series of drills aimed at protecting strategic assets. “Venezuela is mobilizing in an organized manner,” said Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello.
The fact is, this regime should already have fallen. If it were truly a Venezuelan regime, it already would have. But the Maduro government isn’t really Venezuelan — it is propped up by some 15,000 or so occupying Cuban military and intelligence operatives who are loyal to the regime and couldn’t care less about the people of Venezuela, and the Cubans enforce discipline through terror in order to stop defections in the ranks. (RELATED: Nicolás Maduro: Trump Must Oust the Illegitimate Venezuelan Dictator and Revive the Monroe Doctrine)
It’s a rather diabolical bit of tyrannical tradecraft that Maduro’s predecessor, Hugo Chavez, introduced. And it’s another reason why the Castroite cancer in Cuba should never have been left to spread as it has.
Time does appear to be running out for the Venezuelan communists. Urrutia and Machado will likely assume power soon. It might be messy, however, to install the actual elected government of Venezuela instead of the illegitimate, narco-terrorist foreign occupation dictatorship that squats upon the throne in Caracas.
By conferring the Peace Prize on Machado, the international community is signaling that efforts to restore democracy and freedom in Venezuela have its imprimatur.
And that is a good sign after years of lies and apologies made for Chavez and Maduro by some of the same people.
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