Trump accepts Nobel Peace Prize medal from Venezuelan opposition chief Machado

President Donald Trump met Thursday with Venezuelan opposition chief Maria Corina Machado, who offered him along with her Nobel Peace Prize medal. The president known as it a “fantastic gesture of mutual respect.”

“María offered me along with her Nobel Peace Prize for the work I’ve achieved,” Trump wrote on his social media platform. He additionally stated that Machado was a “fantastic lady who has been via a lot” and that it was an amazing honor to fulfill her.

Following the assembly, a White Home official confirmed to ABC Information that Trump did settle for the medal.

Additional particulars concerning the closed-door assembly weren’t instantly revealed by the White Home. Requested concerning the assembly by ABC Information’ Mary Bruce, Trump stated it went “nice.”

Machado instructed reporters as she was exiting the White Home that she offered Trump along with her prize and mirrored on the historical past between the 2 nations.

“I instructed him this … Take heed to this — 200 years in the past, Normal Lafayette gave Simon Bolivar a medal with George Washington’s face on it. Bolivar, since then, saved that medal for the remainder of his life,” she instructed reporters.

“Truly, once you see his portraits, you possibly can see the medal there. And it was given by Normal Lafayette as an indication of the brotherhood between the US, folks of United States, and the folks of Venezuela of their combat for freedom towards tyranny. And 200 years in historical past, the folks of Bolivar are giving again to the inheritor of Washington, a medal, on this case a medal of a Nobel Peace Prize, and a recognition for his distinctive dedication with our freedom,” she added.

Simon Bolivar liberated Venezuela and a number of other different Latin American nations from Spanish rule within the 1800s. The Marquis de Lafayette was a French nationwide who volunteered to combat with American colonists throughout the Revolutionary Battle and ultimately rose to be one in all George Washington’s most trusted generals.

Machado did not supply any extra particulars about her assembly with Trump.

She received the Nobel Peace Prize final yr for her work “selling democratic rights for the folks of Venezuela” and her push to maneuver the nation from dictatorship to democracy.

Machado devoted the prize to Trump, together with the folks of Venezuela, shortly after it was introduced in October 2025.

She stated final week that she wish to give or share the prize with Trump, who oversaw the profitable U.S. operation to seize Venezuelan chief Nicolás Maduro. Maduro faces drug trafficking expenses in New York, to which he has pleaded not responsible.

“I actually would love to have the ability to personally inform him that we consider — the Venezuelan folks, as a result of it is a prize of the Venezuelan folks — actually wish to, to present it to him and share it with him,” Machado instructed Fox Information host Sean Hannity on Monday. “What he has achieved is historic. It is an enormous step in the direction of a democratic transition.”

The Norwegian Nobel Institute issued a assertion final week saying that when the Nobel Peace Prize is introduced, it “can neither be revoked, shared, nor transferred to others. As soon as the announcement has been made, the choice stands forever.”

When requested earlier this month whether or not Machado might change into the subsequent chief of Venezuela, Trump stated it might be “very powerful for her” as a result of she “would not have the help or the respect inside the nation.”

Trump stated Wednesday he had a “nice dialog” with Venezuela’s appearing President Delcy Rodríguez, their first since authoritarian Venezuelan chief Nicolas Maduro was seized by the U.S. on Jan. 3.

“We had a name, an extended name. We mentioned numerous issues,” Trump stated throughout a invoice signing within the Oval Workplace. “And I feel we’re getting alongside very effectively with Venezuela.”

The president stated final week on his social media platform that he had “cancelled the beforehand anticipated second Wave of Assaults” on Venezuela after the federal government launched a number of political prisoners, however he added that “all ships will keep in place for security and safety functions.” 

Trump has coveted and overtly campaigned for profitable the Nobel Prize himself since his return to workplace. White Home Director of Communications Steven Cheung slammed the Nobel Committee for its choice after Machado was introduced as the newest winner.

“[Trump] has the center of a humanitarian, and there’ll by no means be anybody like him who can transfer mountains with the sheer drive of his will,” Cheung stated in an X publish. “The Nobel Committee proved they place politics over peace.”

Jorgen Watne Frydens, the Nobel Committee chair, was requested about Trump’s “marketing campaign” for the prize final yr however denied it had any affect on the decision-making course of.

“We obtain hundreds and hundreds of letters yearly of individuals eager to say what, for them, results in peace,” Frydens stated. “This committee sits in a room full of the portraits of all laureates and that room is full of each braveness and integrity. We base solely our choice on the work and the need of Alfred Nobel.”