Maria Corina Machado says she presented Trump with her Nobel peace prize medal [View all]
Source: The Guardian
Thu 15 Jan 2026 16.54 EST
First published on Thu 15 Jan 2026 16.37 EST
The Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado has said she “presented” her gold Nobel peace prize medal to Donald Trump after meeting him in the White House, nearly a fortnight after he ordered the abduction of Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro. Machado, who received the award last year for her struggle against Maduro’s “brutal, authoritarian state”, told reporters she had done so “in recognition [of] his unique commitment [to] our freedom”. It was not immediately clear whether Trump had accepted the gift.
Earlier in the day the Nobel organizers posted on X: “A medal can change owners, but the title of a Nobel peace prize laureate cannot.” Machado, whose movement is widely believed to have beaten Maduro in Venezuela’s 2024 election, was unexpectedly sidelined by Trump after US special forces troops captured her political rival in the early hours of 3 January.
Opposition supporters hoped Trump would recognise the 58-year-old conservative politician as Venezuela’s new leader after Maduro’s downfall but instead he gave the nod to the dictator’s second-in-command, the vice-president Delcy Rodríguez, who was subsequently sworn in as acting president.
On Thursday, in an apparent attempt to win back Trump’s favour, Machado told reporters she had “presented” her Norwegian medal to the US president during a private meeting. Earlier this week, the organisers of the Nobel peace prize announced the award could not be “shared or transferred” after Machado told Fox News she wished to “share” it with Trump. “The decision is final and stands for all time,” they said.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jan/15/maria-corina-machado-says-she-presented-trump-with-her-nobel-peace-prize-medal
Article updated.
Original article -
Last modified on Thu 15 Jan 2026 16.41 EST
The Venezuelan opposition leader, María Corina Machado, has said she presented Donald Trump with her Nobel peace prize medal during their meeting on Thursday.
She did not answer reporters’ questions as to whether he accepted it.
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