Trump receives second-hand Nobel Peace Prize medal from Maria Corina Machado at White House.
US President Donald Trump was pictured on Thursday receiving a second-hand Nobel Peace Prize medal in a highly symbolic gesture at the White House. The moment came after months of public frustration by POTUS over not having won the award himself.
The 79-year-old appeared visibly pleased as Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado formally handed over the medal, originally awarded to her, during a meeting at the White House.
“I presented the president of the United States the medal, the Nobel Peace Prize,” Machado said after the exchange.
Machado had altered the presentation of the Nobel Peace Prize medal before gifting it to Trump. The Nobel Peace Prize was mounted in a gold frame designed to match the decor of the Oval Office and featured a customised inscription praising the former president.
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The inscription read, “To President Donald J. Trump. In gratitude for your extraordinary leadership in promoting peace through strength, advancing diplomacy, and defending liberty and prosperity.”
It went on to explicitly reference the US military operation that led to the seizure of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on January 3.
“In recognition of President Trump’s principled and decisive action to secure a free Venezuela,” the inscription continued.
It concluded with a message of enduring gratitude, “The courage of America, and its President Donald J. Trump, will never be forgotten by the Venezuelan people.”
Machado, a conservative opposition leader, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in October for her efforts to rescue Venezuela from what the Nobel Committee described as “a brutal, authoritarian state.”
She was unable to attend the official Nobel ceremony in December. Her daughter, Ana Corina, accepted the award on her behalf.
Shortly afterward, Machado went into hiding after being barred from contesting Venezuela’s July 2024 presidential election. She was replaced as the opposition’s candidate by retired diplomat Edmundo González.
Just days after her Nobel Peace Prize win, Machado publicly stated that she would be happy to give the award to Trump.
Following their White House meeting, Trump acknowledged the gesture on his Truth Social platform.
“Machado is a wonderful woman,” Trump wrote, adding that she “presented me with her Nobel Peace Prize for the work I have done. Such a wonderful gesture of mutual respect. Thank you María!”
Despite the optics of the handover, Nobel officials have stressed that the gesture carries no legal standing.
A spokesperson for the Nobel Institutsaid agencies, “A Nobel Prize can neither be revoked nor transferred to others. Once the announcement of the laureate(s) has been made, the decision stands for all time. As for the prize money, the laureate(s) are free to dispose of it as they see fit.”
Reinforcing that position, the Nobel Peace Centre posted on X on Thursday, “A medal can change owners, but the title of a Nobel Peace Prize laureate cannot.”
Zubair Amin is a Senior Journalist at NewsX with over seven years of experience in reporting and editorial work. He has written for leading national and international publications, including Foreign Policy Magazine, Al Jazeera, The Economic Times, The Indian Express, The Wire, Article 14, Mongabay, News9, among others. His primary focus is on international affairs, with a strong interest in US politics and policy. He also writes on West Asia, Indian polity, and constitutional issues. Zubair tweets at zubaiyr.amin
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