Venezuela’s Machado Gives Her Nobel Prize To Trump; Nobel Committee Isn’t Pleased
Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado presented her Nobel Peace Prize to President Trump during a meeting at the White House Thursday — and Trump is keeping it. Even after the Norwegian Nobel Committee said that, “once a Nobel Prize is announced, it cannot be revoked, shared, or transferred to others. The decision is final and stands for all time.”
“She offered it to me. She said you ended eight wars and nobody deserves this prize more than in history,” Trump said Friday outside the White House. “I thought it was a very nice gesture.”
Machado told “Fox & Friends Weekend” that she gave up the prize on behalf of the Venezuelan people. “He deserves it,” she said, crediting Trump with helping bring an end to Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro’s rule after the U.S. captured him earlier this month.
THE BACKSTORY
Trump has long argued that he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize and has repeatedly criticized the Nobel Committee for not awarding it to him, saying his foreign policy record, COVID response, and other actions merit the recognition.
Machado’s visit to Washington comes as she works to reassert her influence over Venezuela’s political future, particularly after Trump publicly distanced himself from the idea of her taking over following Maduro’s capture. He has said she lacks sufficient support and respect inside the country.
REWIND: Machado, 58, has been a leader of the democracy movement in Venezuela, promoting free and fair elections for more than two decades.
She most recently tried to run against Maduro in the 2024 election, but her candidacy was blocked by the government, forcing her into hiding amid threats of arrest. Her ally, Edmundo González Urrutia, ultimately ran in her place and won an estimated 70% of the vote — results that the Maduro regime refused to recognize.
The Trump administration has grown increasingly supportive of Venezuela’s interim leader Delcy Rodríguez, Maduro’s former vice president. Rodríguez, who was not elected, has indicated she’s willing to work with Washington while keeping much of the existing authoritarian system in place.
C.I.A. Director John Ratcliffe met with Rodríguez in Caracas on Thursday — a day after Trump spoke to her by phone.
ON THE GROUND: Venezuelans inside the country are largely supportive (nearly 70%) of a new presidential election, according to new polling out this week. Machado still has overwhelming support.
BACK TO THE PEACE PRIZE
Some previous Nobel Prize medals – the physical prize, not the award itself – have been sold or transferred, but typically for charity. Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov auctioned his medal for more than $100 million in 2022 to support refugees from the war in Ukraine.
There’s more: John Nash Jr.’s economics medal was auctioned in 2019; Francis Crick’s DNA discovery medal sold for more than $2 million in 2013; and James Watson’s (who co-discovered the structure of DNA) medal was bought for nearly $5 million in 2014.