Nobel Peace Prize issued a frosty statement in the lead up to winner María Corina Machado giving Donald Trump her medal at the White House.
The Venezuelan political activist and opposition to Nicolás Maduro described the moment as a “historic day for Venezuelans”.
It was the first time she had met Trump in person and comes just two weeks after the US had captured and taken Nicolás Maduro from Caracas, charging him with drug offences in America.
Trump said meeting Machado was a “great honour” and described her as a “wonderful woman who has been through so much”.
After leaving the White House, Machado spoke to supporters in Spanish outside the White House, telling them: “We can count on President Trump.”
“I presented the president of the United States the medal of the Nobel Peace Prize,” she later told journalists.
She called it “a recognition for his unique commitment with our freedom”.
Despite this, however, Trump did not endorse Machado as the new leader of Venezuela, continuing to deal with Maduro’s former vice-president Delcy Rodríguez.
In the last couple weeks, rumour that Machado might give her Nobel Peace Prize medal to Trump after he intervened in Venezuela to remove her opposition Nicolás Maduro.
This led to the Nobel Peace Prize Committee issuing multiple statement relating to the award, once last week, and again just yesterday (15 January).
In a statement last week, the organisation issued a communication titled: ‘Is it possible to revoke a Nobel Peace Prize?’
It read: “It is not possible to revoke a Nobel Peace Prize. Neither Alfred Nobel’s will nor the Statutes of the Nobel Foundation mention any such possibility.
“As a matter of principle, the Norwegian Nobel Committee will not comment upon what the Peace Prize Laureates may say and do after they have been awarded the prize. The Committee’s mandate is restricted to evaluate the work and efforts of the nominated candidates up to the moment it is decided who shall be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for a given year.
“A Nobel Prize can neither be revoked, shared, nor transferred to others. Once the announcement has been made, the decision stands for all time.
“This does not prevent the Committee from following the future endeavours of laureates closely, even though it expresses neither its concerns nor its acclamation.”
Yesterday, upon the news of Machado visiting Trump at the White House, the official X account for the Nobel Peace Center shared a post about their iconic medals.
As well as providing information on the history of the medal, the post finished by stating: “Once a Nobel Prize is announced, it cannot be revoked, shared, or transferred to others.
“The decision is final and stands for all time.” A medal can change owners, but the title of a Nobel Peace Prize laureate cannot.”
Trump had long lobbied for the Nobel Peace Prize before it was handed to Machado in October 2025.
He claimed to have ended a number of wars around the world, some claims fairer than others, but ultimately the Norwegian committee handed the award to the Venezuelan activist for her work promoting democracy and human rights in Venezuela.
Following the award being given, Trump claimed that Machado had called him and told him she was accepting the prize “in honour of you because you really deserved it.”
Last week, Machado mentioned that she would share the award with the US president, however, the Nobel Committee made sure to note that the award is non-transferable.
In a statement, the committee said: “Once a Nobel Prize is announced, it cannot be revoked, shared, or transferred to others.
“The decision is final and stands for all time.”
Before the White House meeting on Thursday, the Nobel Peace Center posted on X that “a medal can change owners, but the title of a Nobel Peace Prize laureate cannot”.
Machado compared her gesture to that of Marquis de Lafayette, a figure of America’s Revolutionary War, who gave a medal bearing the likeness of George Washington to Simon Bolívar, one of the founding fathers of modern Venezuela.
She described the gift as “a sign of the brotherhood” between her country and the US “in their fight for freedom against tyranny.”
She added: “And 200 years in history, the people of Bolívar are giving back to the heir of Washington a medal, in this case a medal of the Nobel Peace Prize, as a recognition for his unique commitment with our freedom.”