{"id":101892,"date":"2026-01-16T02:49:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T02:49:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/101892\/"},"modified":"2026-01-16T02:49:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T02:49:16","slug":"venezuelan-opposition-leader-maria-corina-machado-presented-trump-her-nobel-peace-prize-medal-in-white-house-meeting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/101892\/","title":{"rendered":"Venezuelan opposition leader Mar\u00eda Corina Machado presented Trump her Nobel Peace Prize medal in White House meeting"},"content":{"rendered":"

Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado<\/a> confirmed Thursday that she presented President Trump with her Nobel Peace Prize<\/a> during a White House meeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cI presented the president of the United States the medal, the Nobel Peace Prize<\/a>,\u201d Machado told reporters on Capitol Hill.<\/p>\n

A photo obtained by The Post showed Trump posing with the medal encased in a frame, with Machado standing by his side in the Oval Office.<\/p>\n

President Trump meets with Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado in the Oval Office on Jan. 15, 2026. Daniel Torok \/ The White House<\/p>\n

A close-up look at the framed certificate Machado presented to Trump. White House<\/p>\n

The inscription read: \u201cTo President Donald J. Trump. In gratitude for your extraordinary leadership in promoting peace through strength, advancing diplomacy, and defending liberty and prosperity.\u201d<\/p>\n

It continued, \u201cPresented as a personal symbol of gratitude on behalf of the Venezuelan people in recognition of President Trump\u2019s principled and decisive action to secure a free Venezuela.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe courage of America, and its President Donald J. Trump, will never be forgotten by the Venezuelan people. \u201c<\/p>\n

The president thanked Machado for the \u201cwonderful gesture\u201d in a social media post.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was my Great Honor to meet Mar\u00eda Corina Machado, of Venezuela, today,\u201d Trump wrote on\u00a0Truth Social<\/a>. \u201cShe is a wonderful woman who has been through so much.<\/p>\n

\u201cMar\u00eda presented me with her Nobel Peace Prize for the work I have done. Such a wonderful gesture of mutual respect. Thank you Mar\u00eda!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Machado, who won the prestigious award last October for her tireless fight to restore freedom in Venezuela and defeat the authoritarian regime of Nicol\u00e1s Maduro<\/a>, explained that she also had a message for Trump when she gave him the prize.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told him this: 200 years ago, Gen. [Marquis de] Lafayette gave Simon Bolivar a medal with George Washington\u2019s face on it. Bolivar kept that medal the rest of his life,\u201d Machado said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was given by Gen. Lafayette as a sign of the brotherhood between the people of the US and the people of Venezuela in their fight against tyranny. 200 years on in history, the people of Bolivar are giving back to the heir of George Washington a medal, in this case a medal of the Nobel Peace Prize,\u201d she continued.<\/p>\n

Venezuela\u2019s \u201cIron Lady\u201d added that she presented Trump with the prize \u201cin recognition of his unique place with our freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n

Venezuelan opposition leader Mar\u00eda Corina Machado holds her Nobel Peace Prize as she poses with J\u00f8rgen Watne Frydnes, Chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee. Nobel Institute\/Jo Straube<\/p>\n

The commander-in-chief hosted Machado at the White House earlier Thursday for a private lunch.<\/p>\n

The Venezuelan opposition leader spent about two and half hours at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Trump, who had been openly campaigning for the award and received several nominations for it himself, told Fox News host Sean Hannity last week that it would be a \u201cgreat honor\u201d if Machado were to present him with her prize.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Machado had previously expressed a willingness to give or share the award with Trump.<\/p>\n

The New York Post cover for Jan. 16, 2026. <\/p>\n

\u201cI certainly would love to be able to personally tell him that we believe \u2014 the Venezuelan people, because this is a prize of the Venezuelan people \u2014 certainly want to, to give it to him and share it with him,\u201d Machado said Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat he has done is historic. It\u2019s a huge step towards a democratic transition.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ahead of Machado\u2019s lunch with Trump, the Nobel Prize Committee\u00a0declared<\/a>: \u201cA medal can change owners, but the title of a Nobel Peace Prize laureate cannot.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Follow The Post\u2019s live coverage of President Trump and national politics for the latest news and analysis<\/a><\/p>\n

Trump, who expressed doubt over Machado\u2019s ability to lead Venezuela<\/a> after the capture of Maduro<\/a>, has backed interim president Delcy Rodr\u00edguez. He called Maduro\u2019s former vice president a \u201cterrific person\u201d after speaking with Rodriguez by phone on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The White House did not immediately respond to The Post\u2019s request for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado confirmed Thursday that she presented President Trump with her Nobel Peace Prize…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":101893,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[153,9,11,10,42387,87,58,7318],"class_list":{"0":"post-101892","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-donald-trump","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-new-york-headlines","11":"tag-new-york-news","12":"tag-nobel-peace-prize","13":"tag-politics","14":"tag-us-news","15":"tag-venezuela"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101892","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101892"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101892\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}