Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado presented President Donald Trump with her Nobel Peace Prize medal during ceremony at the White House on Thursday, giving the president an honor he has long coveted but never won.
Trump accepted the 18-karat gold medal and confirmed the gift on his Truth Social platform Thursday evening.
“It was my Great Honor to meet María Corina Machado, of Venezuela, today,” Trump wrote. “She is a wonderful woman who has been through so much. María presented me with her Nobel Peace Prize for the work I have done. Such a wonderful gesture of mutual respect. Thank you María!”
The White House later posted a photograph showing Trump and Machado in the Oval Office with the medal mounted in a large gilded frame.
President Donald J. Trump meets with María Corina Machado of Venezuela in the Oval Office, during which she presented the President with her Nobel Peace Prize in recognition and honor.🕊️ pic.twitter.com/v7pYHjVNVO
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) January 16, 2026
The frame is inscribed with text:
In Gratitude for Your Extraordinary Leadership in Promoting Peace through Strength, Advancing Diplomacy, and Defending Liberty and Prosperity.” Below the medal, a certificate stated: “Presented as a Personal Symbol of Gratitude on behalf of the Venezuelan People in Recognition of President Trump’s Principled and Decisive Action to Secure a Free Venezuela. The Courage of America, and its President Donald J. Trump, will Never be Forgotten by the Venezuelan people.
Machado told reporters as she departed the White House that she presented the medal “as a recognition for his unique commitment with our freedom.”
“I presented the president of the United States the medal, the Nobel Peace Prize,” Machado said. “I told him this. Two hundred years ago General (Marquis de) Lafayette gave Simon Bolivar a medal with George Washington’s face on it. Bolivar since then kept the medal for the rest of his life.”
“Two hundred years in history, the people of Bolivar are giving back to the heir of Washington a medal, in this case the medal of the Nobel Peace Prize as a recognition for his unique commitment with our freedom,” she added.
Simon Bolivar was considered the “George Washington of South American,” a leader who liberated Venezuela and several other countries from Spanish monarchist rule in the 1800s and established a democratic government. The Marquis de Lafayette was a French nobleman who volunteered to fight with American colonists during the Revolutionary War and rose to become one of Washington’s most trusted generals.
Machado credited Trump with liberating Venezuela from dictator Nicolas Maduro through a U.S. military raid on January 3 that captured Maduro and his wife and brought them to New York to stand trial on drug trafficking charges.
The Norwegian Nobel Institute said that while Trump can possess the physical medal, Machado remains the official 2025 Nobel Peace Prize laureate. The prize cannot be revoked, shared, or transferred to another person.
“A medal can change owners, but the title of a Nobel Peace Prize laureate cannot,” the Nobel Peace Center said. “Once a Nobel Prize is announced, it cannot be revoked, shared, or transferred to others. Once the announcement has been made, the decision stands for all time.”
Trump has been vocal about his desire to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Before the 2025 prize was announced, Trump repeatedly suggested he deserved the award for ending multiple wars.
“I single-handedly ENDED 8 WARS, and Norway, a NATO Member, foolishly chose not to give me the Noble Peace Prize,” Trump said on social media last week.
In September, a White House official provided a list of seven conflicts Trump claimed to have stopped: Israel and Iran, Rwanda and Democratic Republic of the Congo, Armenia and Azerbaijan, Thailand and Cambodia, India and Pakistan, Egypt and Ethiopia, and Serbia and Kosovo.
“There has been more progress towards peace than ever before because of this President’s leadership,” the official wrote.
A number of world leaders and American lawmakers have formally nominated Trump for the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize.
Machado’s gesture comes despite Trump declining to endorse her as Venezuela’s next leader following Maduro’s capture. Trump has said it would be “tough” for Machado to lead Venezuela because “she doesn’t have the support within — or the respect within — the country.”
Instead of backing Machado, Trump threw his support behind Delcy Rodriguez, a brutal communist leader who was Maduro’s vice president and now serves as Venezuela’s interim president.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Thursday that Trump’s assessment of Machado had not changed despite their meeting.
“I know the president was looking forward to this meeting, and he was expecting it to be a good and positive discussion with Miss Machado, who is really a remarkable and brave voice for many people of the people of Venezuela,” Leavitt said. “At this moment in time, his opinion on that matter has not changed.”
Trump has given no timetable on when democratic elections might be held in Venezuela.