Called it.

The White House has accused the Nobel Peace Prize committee of choosing “politics over peace” after Donald Trump lost out on the award.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee gave the award to María Corina Machado, a Venezuelan politician in hiding, despite heavy-handed lobbying from the US president and his supporters.

Mr Trump claims to have ended seven wars and his 20-point peace plan for the Middle East has been the basis of a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas after their two-year conflict.

The president ended seven wars. He did that. He has been more successful in helping bring an end to armed conflicts than any president in American history – in global history. Only on Thursday, the Washington Post ran an opinion piece by Marc A. Thiessen, who made quite an eloquent argument for President Trump to receive the Peace Prize. The president himself has routinely argued that he deserves the prize. 

But his name still didn’t ring any bells in Oslo. Now, I’m sure Maria Corina Machado has done fine work as well, but it’s hard to draw a comparison on scale. 

Ms Machado was honoured on Friday “for her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy,” said Jørgen Watne Frydnes, the chairman of the committee, in Oslo.

Nicknamed Venezuela’s “Iron Lady”, Mr Frydnes added that she was a “unifying figure” in the country’s deeply divided political opposition and is one of “the most extraordinary examples of civilian courage in Latin America in recent times”.

You know, that’s great. Good for her. I would never imply that someone who tirelessly opposes the dictatorship of Nicolás Maduro doesn’t deserve recognition. She’s courageous and determined, and in most years, would be a great choice for the Nobel.