The short answer to that question in my headline is no but also maybe. Maria Machado, the Venezuelan opposition leader who won the Nobel prize last year is meeting with President Trump today at the White House. The White House is calling the meeting a courtesy but Machado is hoping to ingratiate herself with Trump enough that he might reconsider who is running Venezuela. And as part of that effort, it’s possible that she might literally offer him her Nobel Peace Prize, at least the gold medal that was part of the prize.
In an interview last week, Fox News’ Sean Hannity asked her whether she had offered her prize to Trump.
“It hasn’t happened yet,” she said, adding that the peace prize truly belonged to the Venezuelan people, “who certainly want to give it to him and share it with him.”…
Robert O’Brien, who was White House national security adviser during Trump’s first term, said: “I think it would be brilliant on her part to do it. It would certainly be a real sign of good faith, thanks and gratitude for him getting rid of Maduro and giving her and the opposition a shot. Trump took a big risk in doing that.”
“The Nobel Peace Prize Committee came out and said she can’t do it, but she can do whatever she wants,” O’Brien continued. “Are they going to take the money away?” (The peace prize winner receives about $1.2 million, in addition to the gold medal and a certificate.)
The NY Times reports that many in Norway are up in arms over the possibility. When Machado first floated the idea of sharing the prize with Trump the committee issued a statement saying it was not transferable.
On Friday, the Norwegian Nobel Institute clarified the rules governing the award, writing that the facts were “clear and well established.”
“Once a Nobel Prize is announced, it cannot be revoked, shared or transferred to others,” the institute wrote. “The decision is final and stands for all time.”…
The Norwegian Nobel Institute, in its statement, also linked to a page on its website that said that the Nobel Peace Prize, once awarded, could not be revoked.
According to the statutes of the Nobel Foundation, it wrote, “no appeals may be made against the decision of a prize-awarding body with regard to the award of a prize.”
Bottom line, Machado won the prize and she can do whatever she wants with it, including give it away for obvious political reasons. And for his part, Trump seems inclined to take it, saying “it would be a great honor.” Nevertheless, Norwegians seem upset about the possibility of the prize going, even unofficially to a president many of them dislike.
“A Nobel committee can never guard against peace prize laureates committing acts that run counter to the intention of the prize,’’ Lena Lindgren, a columnist for the Norwegian weekly Morgenbladet, said in an interview. “But what is new now is that the prize is being used in a political game, a warlike game.”…
What makes the dispute swirling around Ms. Machado unusual, according to Asle Sveen, a former researcher at the Nobel Institute, is Norwegians’ particularly dim view of Mr. Trump.
Ms. Machado “has dedicated her Peace Prize to a highly controversial president, to put it mildly,” he said. “It is nearly universally accepted in Norway that Donald Trump attacks liberal democracy.”
A Norwegian tabloid, Nettavisen, conducted a poll before the announcement of the award that found three-quarters of respondents were against it being bestowed on Mr. Trump, even if he were instrumental in orchestrating a peace agreement in Ukraine or Gaza.
My own take is that the whole idea of the peace prize seems pretty absurd, especially in this case. Machado’s hand picked stand-in won the last election because she was behind him. She ran a legitimate and peaceful campaign to eject the socialist dictator Maduro. And, by every indication, her stand-in won that election by a wide margin, but Maduro held onto power by simply claiming he had won. Machado was forced to go into hiding for a year to avoid winding up in prison on some trumped up charge.
She fought and she won but ultimately it didn’t matter. Trump, on the other hand, simply removed Maduro and brought him to a US jail without losing a single soldier. Which one of them has done more for Venezuela? I think the best you can say at this moment is, it’s unclear. But if Venezuela eventually transitions toward another free election where the winner actually gets to serve, you could argue Trump’s contribution was at least as important.
Put another way, Machado did everything the right way and nothing changed. Trump did everything the wrong way (at least as far as the Nobel committee is concerned) and yet he’s created real change and potentially hope for a better future for the entire nation.
So if Machado wants to recognize that, maybe she’s right to do so. It’s the Nobel committee that is only interested in carefully curated moral victories. Maria Machado wants, and always wanted, regime change. She wanted Maduro gone and Trump did that.
Personally, I’d like to see plans set in motion for a new election and this time let Machado run (she was forbidden to run in the last election by Maduro, hence the stand-in candidate). If handing over the medal helps to make that happen, it’s a good bargain for everyone involved.
Update: Maria Machado arrives at the White House.
🇻🇪 | Llegada de la líder de Venezuela, María Corina Machado, a la Casa Blanca, para reunirse con el Presidente de Estados Unidos, Donald Trump.
📸 Fotos: cortesía. pic.twitter.com/vPZdXs4TuL
— Comando ConVzla (@ConVzlaComando) January 15, 2026
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