Is Donald Trump now a Nobel Peace Prize winner after Machado gave him her medal?

During a closed-door meeting in Washington this week, Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado presented her Nobel Peace Prize medal to Donald Trump, calling the gesture a historic act of gratitude for what she described as his commitment to Venezuela’s “freedom.” The imagery was deliberate. Machado invoked the Marquis de Lafayette gifting Simón Bolívar a medal bearing George Washington’s likeness, framing Trump as Washington’s modern heir.

The symbolism, however, does not survive contact with reality.

Can the Nobel Peace Prize be transferred?

A Nobel Peace Prize cannot be transferred, shared, inherited, loaned, or informally re-assigned, no matter how ceremonial the moment. The Norwegian Nobel Committee has been explicit for decades: once a prize is awarded, it belongs to the laureate alone, permanently. Alfred Nobel’s will and the statutes governing the prize make no provision for reassignment or revocation. Section 10 of the Nobel Foundation’s statutes is blunt: no appeals are allowed, and no changes are possible.

But it pleased Trump as planned.

Machado’s dedication of her prize to Trump, and her reported offer to share prize money, fall into the same category: symbolic gestures without legal or institutional standing. Even physically handing over the medal does not confer laureate status. At most, Trump now possesses an object, not a title.

The White House itself appeared keen to remove any thought of the gesture changing policy. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed that Trump’s assessment of Machado as a vehicle for political change in Venezuela “has not changed,” despite the highly publicized exchange.

Meanwhile, Caracas responded with predictable indignation. Interim president Delcy Rodríguez framed the episode as a humiliation to be resolved diplomatically, even as U.S.–Venezuelan oil cooperation continues quietly in the background.

Trump has long voiced frustration at never receiving the Nobel Peace Prize, especially as Barack Obama has. This episode will not change that record. Whatever its emotional or propagandistic value, the Nobel Peace Prize remains stubbornly non-transferable. The medal may have changed hands. The prize did not. Now let’s hope the people of Venezuela feel the benefit.

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