Two weeks after US special forces abducted Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, opposition leader Maria Colina Machado visited the White House and held her first face-to-face meeting with US President Donald Trump.
With Venezuela’s future uncertain and President Trump appearing to have the power to decide who leads the South American country, Machado has placed his recently awarded Nobel Peace Prize in the hands of the man who has long coveted it.
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The two posed for a photo in front of the Declaration of Independence in the Oval Office, with Trump smiling broadly as he clutched the large gold frame that encased the medal.
But does that award now belong to Trump, potentially changing the US president’s course of action regarding Venezuela?
Did President Trump win the Nobel Peace Prize?
ABC News later quoted an anonymous White House official confirming that Trump had agreed to keep the award.
“Today, I have the great honor of meeting Maria Colina Machado from Venezuela. She is an amazing woman who has overcome so much,” President Trump said in a post on his platform Truth Social on Thursday.
“Maria presented me with the Nobel Peace Prize for my work. A wonderful expression of mutual respect. Thank you Maria!”
Why did Machado win the award?
Machado, 58, is the leader of the Venezuelan opposition party Bente Venezuela. She is also one of Maduro’s most vocal critics.
In 2023, she won the presidential primary of Venezuela’s opposition party, putting her in a good position to challenge longtime leader Maduro in the 2024 presidential election.
But Venezuela’s highest court, the Supreme Court of Justice, upheld the ban preventing Machado from running. The court upheld the government’s claims that she supported U.S. sanctions, was involved in an arms conspiracy through her party and helped cause losses to Venezuelan assets including U.S.-based oil refiner Citgo and chemical company Monomeros with operations in Colombia.
Diplomat Edmundo González Urrutia became the opposition coalition’s presidential candidate to replace her. Machado campaigned for him.
However, Maduro won the election and has remained president since 2013. The election was controversial and received widespread accusations of fraud from within Venezuela and abroad, including from a United Nations panel of experts. Nine Latin American countries called for a review of the election results in the presence of independent observers.
After more than a year in hiding in defiance of a 10-year travel ban imposed by Venezuelan authorities, Machado secretly left Venezuela in December and traveled to Oslo to collect his bounty.
In announcing the award, the Nobel Committee said Machado was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize “in recognition of his tireless efforts to advance the democratic rights of the Venezuelan people and his struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy.”
Why did Machado give Trump the Nobel Prize?
It is well known that President Trump has long had a desire to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Before the 2025 award was announced, President Trump repeatedly suggested he deserved it and claimed it would be a “great insult” to the United States if he didn’t win.
“Everyone says I should win the Nobel Peace Prize,” President Trump said at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York in September 2025.
Trump added, “I ended seven wars. No president or prime minister has ever done anything close.” The wars he claimed to have ended include the conflict between Cambodia and Thailand. Kosovo and Serbia. Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Rwanda. Pakistan and India. Israel and Iran. Egypt and Ethiopia. and Armenia and Azerbaijan. President Trump later also oversaw the signing of the Gaza ceasefire agreement.
Indeed, analysts say some of these conflicts are still ongoing. Thailand and Cambodia have been firing at each other since the ceasefire. Since the ceasefire took effect on October 10, Israel has killed more than 450 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. And tensions between India and Pakistan remain high.
President Trump has publicly expressed his dissatisfaction with not winning the Nobel Peace Prize. “I single-handedly ended eight wars, and Norway, a NATO member, foolishly chose not to award me the Nobel Peace Prize,” Trump wrote in a Jan. 7 post on Truth Social.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee, which determines the winners, is independent from the Norwegian government.
The White House posted a photo of Trump and Machado holding a framed prize. The frame reads, “This gift is presented as a personal symbol of gratitude on behalf of the Venezuelan people in recognition of President Trump’s principled and decisive action in pursuit of a free Venezuela.”
After meeting with Trump, Machado told reporters it was “amazing” and awarded the medal to Trump as “recognition for his unique commitment to our freedoms.”
Does that mean the Nobel Prize belongs to Trump?
According to the rules of the Nobel Foundation, Nobel Prizes cannot be revoked, redistributed, or transferred to another person. Once a prize is awarded, the decision is final and permanent.
The Nobel Foundation’s Statutes are the formal rules governing how the Nobel System works in practice.
While Trump may keep the physical award, it was still given to Machado, and this decision will remain in place.
The Nobel Peace Center’s X account, the museum’s official account for the Nobel Peace Prize, reiterated this in an X post on Wednesday.
“Medals can change hands, but the title of Nobel Peace Prize winner cannot,” the post said.
What does this mean for Venezuela?
On January 3, President Maduro, 63, was abducted by US special forces during an operation in the Latin American capital, Caracas.
Since his abduction, Venezuela has faced questions about who will lead and who President Trump will support in the role.
The US president quickly ruled out supporting Machado as Venezuela’s leader. “She doesn’t have any support in this country, she doesn’t have any respect in this country. She’s a very nice woman, but she doesn’t have any respect,” Trump said of Machado at a press conference on January 3.
On January 4, the Washington Post reported, citing two anonymous sources close to the White House, that President Trump withheld support from Machado because he was angry that she had accepted the Nobel Prize instead of rejecting it, even though it was dedicated to him.
One said it was the “ultimate sin” for Machado to accept the award, while another told the Post: “If she had turned down the award and said, ‘I can’t accept it because it belongs to Donald Trump,’ she would have been president of Venezuela by now.”
Instead, President Trump supported Maduro’s deputy, Delcy Rodriguez, who became Venezuela’s interim president. Mr. Rodriguez expressed his willingness to cooperate with the United States.
During Mr. Machado’s meeting with Mr. Trump, White House press secretary Caroline Levitt said that Mr. Trump was looking forward to meeting Mr. Machado, but supported the “realistic” view that Mr. Machado lacks the backing necessary to lead the country at this time.
Meanwhile, President Trump spoke by phone with Rodriguez on Wednesday. On the same day, President Trump praised the meeting as “very good” in a post on Truth Social.
“Many topics were discussed, including oil, minerals, trade, and of course national security. This partnership between the United States and Venezuela will be great for everyone. Venezuela will soon be great again and more prosperous than ever!”
Rodriguez said the meeting was long, productive and civil, and they discussed bilateral issues aimed at the interests of both countries.
Machado left the White House with an official gift bag – a red paper bag stamped with President Trump’s golden facsimile signature. It is less clear whether she departed with a better understanding of her place in Washington’s plans for Venezuela’s future.
