US President Donald Trump has found himself at the centre of a fresh global controversy after Venezuela’s opposition leader Maria Corina Machado presented him with her Nobel Peace Prize medal during a meeting at the White House. Trump praised the move as a “wonderful gesture,” even as the Nobel Institute clarified that a laureate cannot officially transfer the prize to another person.
Machado, widely seen as the democratic face of resistance against Venezuela’s long-ruling regime, said she offered the medal as a symbolic act of recognition for Trump’s role in supporting freedom. “I presented the president of the United States the medal, the Nobel Peace Prize,” she told reporters after leaving the White House, calling it a tribute to his “unique commitment” to Venezuela’s cause.
Trump, posting on his Truth Social platform, lauded Machado as “a wonderful woman who has been through so much,” and said the gesture reflected “mutual respect.” A White House official later confirmed that Trump intends to keep the medal, despite questions over whether he is entitled to do so.
The episode comes at a sensitive moment in US-Venezuela relations. Machado had been widely expected to lead Venezuela after disputed elections rejected by President Nicolas Maduro. However, Trump recently cast doubt on her political standing, saying she lacked sufficient support within the country, and signalled openness to working with acting President Delcy Rodriguez, Maduro’s former deputy.
During their closed-door meeting, Machado reportedly received few concrete assurances from Trump about future US backing for democratic reforms or elections in Venezuela. Still, after emerging from the White House, she greeted cheering supporters outside the gates, telling them, “We can count on President Trump,” without elaborating further.
Machado had spent nearly a year in hiding before travelling to Norway last month, where her daughter accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on her behalf. While the medal’s transfer may carry no legal weight, its political symbolism has sparked intense debate, underscoring the shifting alliances and uncertainties surrounding Venezuela’s future.
