Maria Corina Machado Hands Her Nobel Peace Prize Medal to Donald Trump at White House

Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado met privately with former U.S. president Donald Trump at the White House on Jan. 15-16, 2026 and says she presented him with the Nobel Peace Prize medal she won in 2025 as a symbolic gesture of thanks.

Multiple outlets report Machado placed the medal, sometimes described as framed or mounted with an inscription, into Trump's hands, and the White House circulated photos and posts of the encounter.

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A White House official told ABC News that Trump agreed to keep the medal.

The Norwegian Nobel Institute and committee have repeatedly clarified that while a physical medal can change hands, the laureate title and prize itself cannot be transferred.

Machado reappeared publicly in December to accept a prize in Oslo after roughly 11 months in hiding.

She then traveled to Washington to meet lawmakers and press her case for a role in Venezuela's transition.

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U.S. and international coverage highlights that she lobbied both parties in Congress, met with the pope before visiting Washington, and greeted supporters outside the White House.

Many outlets note she framed or dedicated the prize in part as recognition of U.S. action and support.

The Nobel Institute's repeated caveat that the Peace Prize and laureate title cannot be revoked, shared, or transferred even if a medal is handed over is emphasized across mainstream and specialized coverage, creating a common legal framing.

“Machado and Trump met at the White House amid uncertainty over the future of Venezuela”

Al Jazeera

Reporting differs on whether Trump physically kept the medal, with outlets such as Forbes, the BBC, and the Nobel Institute cited for the legal point and White House photos plus Trump's social‑media acknowledgement highlighted as evidence the medal left Machado's custody in Washington.

Coverage diverges sharply on the political implications of the meeting.

Many Western mainstream outlets report the White House praised Machado's courage but publicly expressed doubts about her ability to lead inside Venezuela.

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Some Western-alternative and regional outlets frame the meeting either as a political win for Machado or as evidence she is politically sidelined.

Several outlets note that Trump has separately engaged with Delcy Rodríguez, Maduro's former vice-president and, in some reports, the acting leader.

U.S. officials have been working with interim actors on oil and prisoner-release cooperation, complicating Machado's bid for U.S. backing.

Reporting shows sharp divergence on contested facts tied to the broader Venezuelan crisis, chiefly claims about a U.S. operation that allegedly removed Nicolás Maduro from power.

“Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel laureate María Corina Machado said she presented her Nobel medal to former U”

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Many outlets treat those claims as reported or consequential, while at least one Al Jazeera item in our dataset explicitly cautions that key claims are unverified or unsupported by reliable reporting.

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That split affects how the Machado–Trump exchange is framed: some sources situate it as part of a U.S. campaign that toppled Maduro and restructured Venezuelan authority, while others present it as a dramatic but uncertain episode whose long-term policy effects remain unclear.