Venezuela's opposition leader gives Trump her Nobel Peace Prize medal
President Donald Trump lost out on the Nobel Peace Prize, yet in a rare confluence of geopolitics and chance, he wound up with the 18-karat gold medal nonetheless.
María Corina Machado, who won the 2025 prize, presented her medal to Trump during a private meeting at the White House on Thursday in appreciation for deposing Venezuela’s repressive leader, Nicolás Maduro, in a U.S. military raid on Jan. 3.
In a post on his social media site, Trump thanked Machado for parting with her prize. He did not say what he intends to do with it.
“It was my Great Honor to meet María Corina Machado, of Venezuela, today,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “She is a wonderful woman who has been through so much. María presented me with her Nobel Peace Prize for the work I have done. Such a wonderful gesture of mutual respect. Thank you María!”
He later posted a photo of himself with Machado and the medal.
In an interview, Machado told Fox News that she gave Trump the medal “because he deserves it.”
“I decided to present the Nobel Peace Prize medal on behalf of the people of Venezuela,” she added.
Machado’s offering is wholly symbolic; it does not make Trump the official recipient of the prestigious honor. The Norwegian Nobel Institute has already stated that Machado remains the winner for all time.
The prize can’t be shared or transferred, the institute said.
Yet, with the medal in hand, Machado was always free to do with it as as she chose. She had already dedicated the prize to Trump, crediting his support for her democratic movement.
The Nobel selection committee had honored Machado for promoting democratic rights in Venezuela.
In selecting her for the award, the committee bypassed Trump, for whom the Nobel Peace Prize has become something of a fixation.
Machado spoke to reporters on Capitol Hill after a meeting with senators late Thursday afternoon and drew a historical parallel in explaining why she wanted Trump to keep her medal.
Just as Marquis de Lafayette, an American Revolutionary War hero, had given a gift to Simon Bolivar, who led a liberation movement in South America 200 years ago, Machado said she wanted to similarly honor Trump for freeing Venezuela from its oppressor.
She told reporters that “the people of Bolivar are giving back to the heir of Washington a medal, in this case a medal of the Nobel Peace Prize as a recognition for his unique commitment with our freedom.”
A certain convergence of interests underpinned the meeting between Trump and Machado. Each had something the other wanted.
Machado hopes to one day head a Venezuelan government whose leaders are decided through the ballot box. For that, she needs Trump to usher in a democratic transition.
And Trump wants recognition for his peacemaking efforts. He says he deserves not one but multiple Nobel Prizes for the various wars he says he has ended through his intervention.
Thanks to Machado, he now has in his possession the peace medal. The front depicts Alfred Nobel, who established the 125-year-old award; the back shows three naked men embracing, symbolizing international comity.
For now, the president has kept Machado sidelined. Trump is relying, instead, on remnants of Maduro’s regime to lead the country day to day, backing Maduro’s vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, for the country’s top job. In the hours after the military raid, Trump called Machado a “very nice woman” but said she lacked “respect” within the country.
At least one Republican lawmaker disagrees with that assessment.
Earlier Thursday, Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., praised Machado, calling her “an unbelievable leader.”
“I don’t think there’s any question she has the respect” to become president of Venezuela, Scott told reporters.
The White House seems in no rush to replace Rodríguez. Trump administration officials said they need an unspecified period of time to prepare Venezuela for a democratic transition.
In a press briefing Thursday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that Trump is satisfied with the compliance he’s gotten so far from Rodríguez and her cohort.
“They have been extremely cooperative,” Leavitt said. “They have thus far met all of the demands and requests of the United States and of the president.”
In the run-up to her meeting with Trump, Machado had hinted she might hand him her medal. (Prize winners also receive a cash award of about $1.1 million.)
She told Fox News’ Sean Hannity in an interview that the Venezuelan people “certainly want to give it to him and share it with him.”
On the eve of Machado’s arrival at the White House, a senior White House official suggested Trump would be inclined to accept the medal if she offered it.
“If she wants to gift him something, he’s not one to refuse a gift,” the official said in an interview.
Newt Gingrich, the Republican former House speaker and author of a book titled “Understanding Trump,” also expected Trump to accept Machado’s medal.
“I suspect she will offer it to him, and I suspect he’ll put it somewhere in the Oval Office,” Gingrich said in an interview. “It’s a Trump move.”
“Trump is a unique person who has enormous strengths and occasional moments when you wonder, ‘What’s going on?’” Gingrich added.
Robert O’Brien, who was White House national security adviser during Trump’s first term, said ahead of the meeting: “I think it would be brilliant on her part to do it. It would certainly be a real sign of good faith, thanks and gratitude for him getting rid of Maduro and giving her and the opposition a shot. Trump took a big risk in doing that.”
“The Nobel Peace Prize Committee came out and said she can’t do it, but she can do whatever she wants,” O’Brien continued. “Are they going to take the money away?”
Lewis Lukens, a senior official in the U.S. Embassy in London during Trump’s first term, said the proper response from an American president who is offered someone else’s Nobel Prize is to graciously decline.
“If it were any other president, they’d say: ‘Thank you so much. That’s very kind of you, but this is an award that was given to you. Please don’t leave it here. It’s yours. I refuse to accept it,’” Lukens said. “But I can totally see Trump saying: ‘Thank you very much. I deserve it, and I’m going to keep it.’”
A number of world leaders and American lawmakers have formally nominated Trump for the 2026 prize. A five-person committee appointed by Norway’s parliament will sift through the candidates and announce its decision in October.
With no Nobel to his name, Trump’s unhappiness seems to be growing more pronounced. He said this month that it’s an “embarrassment” to Norway that he hasn’t won the award.
Such complaints aren’t likely to sweeten his chances of winning the award on his own, said Marc Nathanson, who was U.S. ambassador to Norway during the Biden administration.
“The Norwegians are extremely honest and transparent,” he said in an interview. “If you go to a restaurant — even if you’re an ambassador — you have to wait your turn. It’s that type of society.”
Kåre Aas, Norway’s ambassador to the U.S. from 2013 to 2020, said that, if anything, Trump’s chances of being named the winner this year have dimmed. He mentioned Trump’s threats to acquire Greenland, a territory of Denmark.
“Annexing Greenland and threatening European countries doesn’t at all strengthen President Trump’s chances to get the award,” Aas said in an interview.
What Trump does with the gift is an open question. Will Machado’s award stay in the White House? Go to his presidential library after his term ends?
President Theodore Roosevelt’s Nobel Peace Prize from 1906 now hangs in the Roosevelt Room, a few paces from the Oval Office. That would be a fitting location for Machado’s award, O’Brien said.
Said Gingrich: “I just watch with amazement to see what happens next.”
F. Brinley Bruton and Gabe Gutierrez contributed.
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