Machado’s Flattery? She Gives Her Nobel Peace Prize Medal to Trump

[Financial News] María Corina Machado, the Venezuelan opposition leader who won the Nobel Peace Prize last year, handed her Nobel Peace Prize medal to U.S. President Donald Trump on the 15th (local time).
CBS, citing two White House officials, reported that Machado personally presented the Nobel Peace Prize medal to President Donald Trump during a closed-door meeting at the White House that day. The medal she gave him is said to be the original, not a replica.
Earlier, in a Fox News interview on the 5th, Machado said she wanted to share the Nobel Peace Prize with President Trump and expressed her intention to give him her original Nobel Peace Prize medal. This has been interpreted as a gesture of gratitude for Trump’s move on the 3rd, when a surprise military operation by the United States Armed Forces led to the capture of President of Venezuela Nicolás Maduro—long known as an iron-fisted ruler—and his transfer to the United States, effectively ousting him from power.
After her visit to the White House, Machado went to the United States Congress, where she met with senators. There, she described her meeting with President Trump as “extraordinary,” underscoring its significance.
However, it has once again been confirmed that sharing a Nobel Prize is not permitted under the rules. In a statement issued on the 10th, the Nobel Committee said, “Once the awarding of a Nobel Prize has been announced, the prize cannot be revoked, shared, or transferred to another person,” thereby rejecting Machado’s proposal. The Nobel Peace Center also wrote on X (formerly Twitter) that while ownership of the medal can change hands, “the title of Nobel Peace Prize laureate does not.”
The Nobel Peace Center noted that there have been previous cases in which medals were transferred. Dmitry Muratov, the Russian journalist who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021, put his medal up for auction to support refugees from the war in Ukraine, and it sold for more than 100 million dollars.
According to the center, the Nobel Peace Prize medal is made of gold, measures 6.6 centimeters in diameter, and weighs 196 grams. The obverse bears a portrait of Alfred Nobel, while the reverse shows three nude men symbolizing fraternity, their arms around one another’s shoulders—a design that has remained unchanged for 120 years.
At a time when President Trump is expected to wield considerable influence over the future composition of Venezuela’s government and the reshaping of its political order, Machado—seen as a contender for the country’s next presidency—is drawing scrutiny for her decision to hand over the medal, which many interpret as a political move aimed at currying favor with Trump.
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km@fnnews.com Kim Kyung-min Reporter