US News – Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado said she gave her Nobel Peace Prize to President Trump during a meeting. Machado said she presented her Nobel Peace Prize medal to President Donald Trump during a meeting at the White House on Thursday. She expressed appreciation for Trump’s “unwavering commitment to our freedom,” despite his repeated questioning of her ability to lead the country after the removal of then-President Nicolás Maduro from power.
Machado did not provide further details about the meeting, and the White House did not confirm whether Trump accepted the medal.
Earlier, the Nobel Peace Prize-awarding institution had stated that Machado could not give the prize to Trump. Before Machado’s meeting with Trump, the White House said that whether Trump would accept the medal if she attempted to give it to him was entirely up to the president. Leaving the White House and heading to Capitol Hill, Machado told reporters,
“I presented the Nobel Peace Prize medal to the President of the United States.” She said she did so “in recognition of his unwavering commitment to our freedom.”
Machado also said she discussed the future of her country with President Trump at the White House on Thursday, even though Trump had previously dismissed her as a viable option to take power after the arrest of then-President Nicolás Maduro.
The meeting between the two leaders came as interim President Delcy Rodríguez was delivering her first State of the Union address, less than two weeks after the U.S. helped oust her predecessor, Maduro, from power. Trump and his top advisers have expressed a willingness to work with Rodríguez, who was Maduro’s vice president.
