Overview
- At a January 15 White House meeting, Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado presented her 2025 Nobel Peace Prize medal to President Donald Trump.
- Trump accepted the medal and posted on Truth Social, thanking Machado and calling the handover a gesture of mutual respect.
- The Norwegian Nobel Committee has previously stated that a Nobel prize cannot be revoked, divided, or transferred, and it did not respond to new requests for comment on Friday.
- Oslo professor and former deputy foreign minister Janni Haaland Matlary called the move unprecedented and a show of disrespect, describing it as senseless and pathetic.
- Media commentary portrays the episode as reinforcing perceptions of the peace prize’s political overtones, including debate over the decision to honor Machado.