Venezuela’s Opposition Leader Maria Machado Presents Donald Trump Her Nobel Peace Prize, But Prize Be Transferred?

16th January 2026 at 12:44 PM

1 minute read

New York : Wonderful gesture, said US President Donald Trump with a cheek-to-cheek smile as he posed with a Nobel Peace Prize after Venezuela’s Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado handed her medal to him at the White House. Machado not only presented the medal to Trump, she left it at the White House, and Trump accepted it openly, calling it a “gesture of mutual respect.”

This marked the first time in history that a Nobel Peace Prize laureate voluntarily handed over the medal. But can such an award actually be transferred? The Norwegian Nobel Institute had already addressed the issue days before Machado’s White House visit. The institute reiterated that the Nobel Peace Prize cannot be transferred, shared, or revoked, following remarks by the Venezuelan opposition leader suggesting she might give her 2025 award to Trump.

Venezuela's opposition leader Maria Corina Machado announces that she presented President Trump with her Nobel Peace Prize medal.

She explains she did it: "recognition for his unique commitment with our freedom". pic.twitter.com/9CFoWq3UIb
— Tommy Robinson 🇬🇧 (@TRobinsonNewEra) January 15, 2026

It also noted that Nobel Committees do not comment on the actions or statements of laureates after receiving the award, underscoring that “once a Nobel Prize is announced, it cannot be revoked, shared or transferred to others. Once a Nobel Prize is announced, it cannot be revoked, shared or transferred to others. The decision is final and stands for all time, the Norwegian Nobel Committee and the Norwegian Nobel Institute said.

Nobel Peace Prize, regarded as the most prestigious of all Nobel prizes, which are given to those who have “conferred the greatest benefit to mankind”, was presented to Machado this year. However, she later announced that she would be presenting it to Trump after he captured the country’s President Nicolas Maduro. I presented the president of the United States the medal, the Nobel Peace Prize,” Machado told reporters after leaving the White House. She said she had done so “as a recognition for his unique commitment with our freedom.”