María Corina Machado gives her Nobel Peace Prize to Trump

Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado kept her promise and gave United States President Donald Trump the Nobel Peace Prize she was awarded in 2025 during their meeting in Washington on Thursday. “María presented me with her Nobel Peace Prize for the work I have done,” said Trump, in reference to the January 3 U.S. military operation that captured Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro in Caracas. “Such a wonderful gesture of mutual respect,” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social app, thanking her and describing her as “a wonderful woman who has been through so much.” The White House official social media accounts posted a photograph of Trump and Machado at the Oval Office, holding a large gold frame with the Nobel Prize medal. “Presented as a personal symbol of gratitude on behalf of the Venezuelan people in recognition of President Trump’s principled and decisive action to secure a free Venezuela,” said a text below the medal. “The courage of America, and its president Donald J. Trump, will never be forgotten by the Venezuelan people,” it added. The details of Trump and Machado’s conversation were not disclosed. It is unclear whether Trump made any promises or proposals to her. Machado was seen leaving the White House with a red gift bag with Trump’s signature on it. The Nobel laureate also met with Democrat and Republican lawmakers on Thursday. The Nobel reacts On Thursday, the Nobel Peace Center, a museum in Norway dedicated to the prize, wrote in an X post that “a medal can change owners, but the title of a Nobel Peace Prize laureate cannot.” Last week, the Norwegian Nobel Committee and the Norwegian Nobel Institute said in a statement that a Nobel award cannot be transferred from its laureate to another person. “The facts are clear and well established. Once a Nobel Prize is announced, it cannot be revoked, shared, or transferred to others. The decision is final and stands for all time.” You may also be interested in: Venezuela: Machado says she wants to give Trump her Nobel Peace Prize Future president of Venezuela In an interview with Fox News after the meeting, the Venezuelan opposition leader — who was barred by Maduro from running for the presidency of her country in the July 2024 general elections — said she believes she will be elected Venezuelan leader one day. “I want to serve my country wherever I can be most useful. I received a mandate, and I keep that in mind every day. It has involved taking great risks and paying very high costs, not only for myself but also for my family and our teams, but I truly believe in it,” she said.  “There is a mission, and we are going to transform Venezuela into that land of grace, and I believe that I will be elected, when the time is right, as president of Venezuela, the country’s first female president,” Machado said. After she was barred in 2024 Edmundo González Urrutia — currently exiled in Spain — replaced her as the main opposition candidate, with Machado as his vice president. They were widely considered to be the winners of the election, which Maduro claimed for himself, without presenting any evidence to support his claim. Despite the fact that Washington recognized González and Machado as the true winners, after capturing Maduro Trump said the U.S. government would recognize his then vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, as the new head of the Venezuelan government.  When asked about Machado, he said she “doesn’t have the respect within the country” to run it. On Wednesday, the day before meeting the Nobel laureate, Trump described Delcy Rodríguez as a “terrific person” and said that his administration is “getting along really well with Venezuela.”