This is the most deserved Nobel Peace Prize recipient in the history of the world, President Donald Trump. I think that he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize. I want to present to you, Mr. President, the letter I sent to the Nobel Prize Committee. [00:00:15] It's nominating you for the Peace Prize, which is well deserved, and you should get it. Mike Johnson got on Twitter this week and proclaimed that Donald Trump should be given the Nobel Peace Prize for unleashing American troops against his own people. [00:00:31] I wasn't expecting the surprise appearance, I enjoyed that. But all those accolades and endorsements from all these different world leaders, didn't end up actually getting him the Nobel Peace Prize. Try again next year, I suppose. President Trump, but he didn't end up getting it. [00:00:47] Interestingly, the woman who did end up getting the prize actually sort of dedicated it to Donald Trump. So maybe that will placate him. And we're going to give you a lot of details about her, about the why it is that she won it, and also how she's connected to some of what we've been seeing [00:01:04] developing politically and militarily between the United States and Venezuela. But first, Jake, what was your initial reaction when the news broke? It's not going to be Trump, at least this year. Oh. The horror, the horror. Okay, guys, he hasn't done anything yet. [00:01:20] First of all, they voted before this Gaza peace deal. Second of all, the Gaza peace deal isn't even in effect yet. The hostages haven't been returned. Israel is probably going to violate it within a couple of days. So here's what I've been saying all along, John, which is if he actually gets [00:01:36] a two state solution, no, I'm going to aggressively lobby for him to get the Nobel Peace Prize and even trip into a GoFundMe to build a statue. Okay, two state solution. It hasn't happened my whole life. We could fight him on everything else, but has that happened? [00:01:53] Bring it down. That has not happened at all. Right. So. Yeah, but wait till you find out who actually did win. It makes you go. And I have a theory as to why she won it. Yeah. Save your money on the statue. They've already got a statue of him and his former best friend [00:02:09] out in front of the white House. Actually, I think it's a great likeness. But in any event, he didn't win it. The woman who did is Maria Corina machado. She's the opposition leader in Venezuela and obviously well known to the sort of people who choose the Nobel Peace Prize and all of that. [00:02:26] I led with our coverage on the damage report this morning, saying that I wasn't familiar with the work. I'm not an expert in Venezuela, and I've been looking at like all like the media responses to this today. And it turns out I'm the only one who isn't. Everybody's deeply familiar with all of this, it seems. Isn't that weird how the media works out? [00:02:41] But in any event, we're going to go over some of the facts so that you do know what she has done. According to Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! Machado has been considered an ally of the United States for years now. She was actually nominated for the prize by Florida Republicans, interestingly [00:02:57] enough, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, which I feel like could lead to some awkward conversations. In 2024. She actually tried to run for president against Nicolas Maduro, but the government stepped in and stopped her from running, claiming that she was corrupt [00:03:13] and pointing to her support for U.S. Sanctions on Venezuela. See, in Venezuela, the government gets involved and messes with the elections. Obviously, that would never happen here. Here's some more information about her. Considered a staunch advocate of free market economics, [00:03:30] privatization of state industries, foreign investment, and closer alignment with the US and Western institutions. Machado has openly called for U.S. Sanctions on Caracas, and regularly lobbies US media and officials for support, in particular on that topic of foreign investment, [00:03:46] Machado has touted an economic plan to American and other investors, saying that a democratic Venezuela under her movement's control has the potential to generate $1.7 trillion in wealth in 15 years. Some of it might even go to the people of that country, perhaps, [00:04:04] in June of this year, she told corporate representatives from America, our message to oil companies is we want you here. Certainly we want you here not producing crumbs of a couple hundred thousand barrels a day. We want you here producing millions of barrels a day. And all of that seems like the sort of thing that America, [00:04:23] in terms of foreign policy, has been interested in over the past few decades. And so some of that, you can sort of understand why some of these figures that you might not have expected to be in support of a person other than Trump who would win the Nobel Peace Prize, are actually in support of her. And obviously, it's it's a mixed picture, like there's all this economic stuff, [00:04:39] you know, that said, she has stood up to Maduro. Her life has theoretically been on the line, let alone her freedom. And so, you know, there's there's a lot out there, but obviously, maybe some of this takes a bit of the sting away from Donald Trump. [00:04:55] If. It plays into some strategy, perhaps, let alone her dedicating it to him. Yeah, I totally agree. So first, when I heard the news that it was a Venezuelan who was opposed to Maduro, who won the Peace prize, I thought, yeah, I can see that. That makes sense. Like, so, I, I'm not a fan of Maduro. [00:05:13] I think Maduro, is, oppressing his own people in a lot of ways. I don't believe he won the last election. But it's so hard to know who's right and who's wrong, because. Does he do massive propaganda? Absolutely. Does the US do massive propaganda? Absolutely. [00:05:32] Do I trust mainstream media on what they're reporting on? Venezuela 5050. Some of it is true, and some of it is colored by the fact that, you know, our media, unfortunately, instead of challenging our government 90% of the time, you know, backs our government. [00:05:48] Oh, there's a leak from the Pentagon. Venezuela is super evil, right? I mean, they want the oil. We read you the quote, earlier in the week, Richard Grenell, who was negotiating peace for us with Venezuela. I'm like, when did we go to war? Why? Like we brought in a peace negotiator before we attacked him. [00:06:06] At least we started attacking their ships and stuff. But so like it. Could you have a real worthy Nobel Peace laureate? From Venezuela opposed to Maduro? Absolutely right. But then you read the details and you're like, she's encouraging the oil [00:06:24] companies to take over Venezuela. She's like, she seems to be in a couple of her comments egging on a coup against Venezuela. That's not peace. Look, I don't know how you get rid of Maduro. And I think that's Venezuela's business, not our business. Right. [00:06:39] And so if she's fighting back peacefully, Gandhi, Mandela type of thing, great. No problem. That's not the vibe I'm getting. Right. And then she thanks Donald Trump profusely and basically, like, welcoming him like, come to Venezuela. But Trump is killing maybe drug dealers, maybe fishermen like randos, etc. [00:07:01] To try to start a war with Venezuela. So that led me to the same conclusion that you were hinting at there, John. This seems like a compromise. Like we don't want to anger America so much, and they want someone who likes war to win the Peace Prize. Giving it to Trump would be absurd and would totally devalue like it would [00:07:19] destroy the reputation of the prize. They almost did that, by the way, when they gave it to Obama, because they gave to Obama on like day two of his administration when he hadn't done anything. Right. So, so they couldn't do that, but they didn't want the blow. My guess is, I'm guessing the blowback from picking someone who was actually [00:07:36] for peace or against American interests. Instead, they pick someone who's like, I'm for peace. But I'm also kind of for the war that I want you to start. Yeah. I mean, what if they, like, chose, like, I don't know, the flotilla or something? - Oh. Their heads. - And again, I'm. I'm laying out some speculation, hypotheticals. [00:07:53] I will say what I said on the damage report. I'm not a regional expert. I don't know basically anything about their politics. And almost nobody admits that sort of thing. I don't understand why you would avoid it. I think you should be forthright with your audience. I'm trying to learn as much as I can, like everybody else is. [00:08:11] In any event, let's give just a little bit more detail before we close out our conversation on this. What's interesting is that during the ongoing negotiations between the United States and Maduro, who, based on what we're reading here, really does seem to worry that we're going to launch an invasion, which is strange [00:08:26] because Donald Trump is such a peace guy. But anyway, they've Maduro is apparently been offering massive concessions to the Trump administration, including a dominant stake in Venezuela's oil and other mineral wealth. In discussions that lasted for months. Again, remember that Donald Trump, despite being like, viciously opposed [00:08:44] to socialism and communism. Now just routinely, the US government takes stakes in individual corporations. That's now happened multiple times. And so I guess theoretically, that's what we would do to avoid a war. Except they didn't accept that. Maduro also offered to open up all existing and future oil and gold projects [00:09:02] to American companies, give preferential contracts to American businesses, reverse the flow of Venezuelan oil exports from China to the United States, and slashed his country's energy and mining contracts with Chinese, Iranian and Russian firms. But despite all of that, the Trump administration cut off [00:09:19] all diplomatic efforts with them, which seems like, hypothetically, they think they can get a better deal somewhere else. And that is already I mean, that is a massive series of concessions, like like a case to be made that Venezuela would effectively be a client state of the United States after that. [00:09:36] And that was not enough for the Trump administration. And so who apparently is leading the way on moving away from diplomacy and to, theoretically, some sort of military conflict? It seems like Marco Rubio, which is strange because he's the head of our diplomatic bureaucracy. [00:09:53] But again, what does any of this mean? I guess by the time the Secretary of defense becomes the Secretary of War, you also upgrade the Secretary of state to secretary of defense. It all moves in that direction. But in any way, any event, as we've been, randomly bombing, ships without providing [00:10:08] any evidence of what's on there, Rubio has apparently been, taking intelligence provided by the CIA, pushing for a more aggressive strategy versus Venezuela. Buy now. By the way, we apparently have 6500 troops in the area, and Rubio has for a very long [00:10:26] time been an advocate of regime change, which is not necessarily what you want in the guy that's supposed to be holding the diplomatic cards. And so there's a lot there, a lot more we can get into. - Any final thoughts, Jen? - Yeah, it's obvious we want war. I mean, if you don't take that deal, what you're saying is I wouldn't [00:10:43] have taken any deal because I just. I don't want three half to three quarters of the pot. I want the whole pot. Right. So why is Maduro offering that deal? Because for a similar reason, he's like, I don't really care. I just want to stay in charge. So these Americans look like they're going to invade me. [00:10:59] And better for Venezuela. Worse for Venezuela. Whatever, dude. Like, if they invade, I don't stay in charge. If they don't invade, I do stay in charge. So it's not like I care about my own citizens. I mean, look, the country's a mess, right? So, yeah, I'll give away their natural resources as long as I get to stay in power. [00:11:14] So there are no good guys in this story, unfortunately. But the best point is the one John made. Marco Rubio is supposed to prevent war as secretary of state, but instead he's egging it on because they're all neocons. All they want is war. And remember, there's the oil companies, and they've already admitted [00:11:31] that they were negotiating. Grenell said, we are negotiating to get the oil companies better deals. I mean, it's unbelievable. How do you say that before you. They used to hide that fact, right? But it's also the defense contractors who would make a ton of money from that war. So there's a lot of lobbyists pushing for that war. [00:11:48] And that's why they turned down what seems to be an excellent offer. Yeah. I also think, you know, returning to the previous point, like Trump now needs to cast his eyes ahead to the Nobel Peace Prize for 2026. And how do you get that? You end wars. And we already know that he counts him ending the US war with Iran [00:12:05] as one of his wars. He's ended if he invades Venezuela and then eventually ends that war. Nobel Peace Prize could work out for him. Every time you ring the bell below, an angel gets his wings. Totally not true, but it does keep you updated on our live shows.