Machado, following what she described as an “excellent” White House meeting, said she gave the medal to Trump in recognition of his “unique commitment with our freedom.”
The Nobel Committee has insisted that while the medal can transfer owners, the winner’s status as a Nobel laureate can’t be shared or transferred to others.
Machado’s medal gesture comes less than two weeks after the U.S. launched a military operation that killed approximately 100 people in Venezuela where forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, at home in the middle of the night.
Since the attack, Trump has signaled his support for interim president Delcy Rodriguez, a Maduro ally, while declaring that Machado didn’t have “the support within, or the respect within” the country.
On Thursday, Trump described Machado as a “wonderful woman who has been through so much” and called it his “Great Honor” to meet her.
Social media users weighed in on the reported medal hand off, with one Bluesky user sarcastically calling it the “Nobel Appease Prize,” an apparent nod to Trump’s repeated claims that he deserved the honor last year.
