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Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado said she "donated" her Nobel Peace Prize gold medal to Donald Trump after meeting with him at the White House, almost two weeks after he ordered the kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
Machado, who received the award last year for her fight against Maduro's "brutal and authoritarian state," told reporters she did 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, Nobel organizers posted on X: “A medal can change owners, but the title of a Nobel Peace Prize laureate cannot.”
Still, Machado went ahead with her symbolic gesture — a move that analysts saw as an attempt to salvage the dwindling hopes of her movement to seize power now that Maduro was out of the game and behind bars in New York.
Speaking to reporters, Machado compared the awarding of her medal to Trump to how, in 1825, the Marquis de Lafayette sent South American independence hero Simón Bolívar a gold medal with an image of George Washington. Machado called Lafayette's gift "a sign of brotherhood between the people of the United States and the people of Venezuela in their fight for freedom against tyranny."
Machado, whose movement is widely believed to have defeated Maduro in Venezuela's 2024 elections, was abruptly sidelined by Trump after US special forces troops captured her political rival in the early hours of January 3.
Opposition supporters had hoped that Trump would recognize the 58-year-old conservative politician as Venezuela's new leader after Maduro's ouster, but instead he gave his approval to Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, who was then sworn in as acting president.
Trump's decision not to support Machado after Maduro's departure was reportedly a consequence of deteriorating relations between her and members of Trump's team, as well as concerns that her move would not be able to control the security situation in Venezuela.
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