Maria Corina Machado refused to say whether the US president accepted her present
Venezuelan Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado, who openly supported the US military operation against her own country, said she gifted her medal to President Donald Trump, who has long publicly coveted it.
The Nobel Committee stated unequivocally last week that even if a medal itself changes owners, the title of a Nobel Peace Prize laureate “can neither be revoked, shared, nor transferred to others.”
“I presented the president of the United States the medal, the Nobel Peace Prize,” Machado told supporters after their closed-door talks at the White House on Thursday.
She framed the gesture with a historical parallel, claiming it mirrored when the Marquis de Lafayette gave Simon Bolivar a medal featuring George Washington. “Two hundred years in history, the people of Bolivar are giving the heir of Washington a medal,” she said.
While Machado told cheering supporters, “We can count on President Trump,” the White House played down the encounter’s significance. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt called Machado “a remarkable and brave voice” but stressed the meeting did not reflect a change in Trump’s “realistic assessment.”
Trump has consistently dismissed Machado’s viability to lead Venezuela, stating shortly after the US operation that captured President Nicolas Maduro that she “doesn’t have the support or the respect within the country.”
Instead, the US president has signaled a willingness to work with the interim government of Delcy Rodriguez, Maduro’s former vice president, whom he praised as a “terrific person” after a long phone call this week.
Machado’s visit coincided with continued US efforts to control Venezuelan oil assets, including the seizure of another sanctioned tanker, and occurred as Rodriguez was delivering a State of the Union address in Caracas. The Trump administration noted Rodriguez’s government is “cooperating” with Washington, including by releasing prisoners detained under Maduro.
Machado, who previously led anti-government protests and accused Maduro of “illegally” seizing power during the 2024 elections, left Venezuela last year. She did not clarify whether Trump accepted the Nobel medal. She left the White House without answering questions on the matter, proceeding to meetings on Capitol Hill with lawmakers less skeptical of her candidacy.
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