Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado on Thursday said she presented her Nobel Peace Prize medal to US President Donald Trump at the White House and discussed her country’s future with the US leader, even as he has questioned her credibility to lead her country.
Machado’s extraordinary gesture to Trump, which the Nobel Institute has said can not be done, followed a rapidly evolving series of developments in Venezuela after an audacious US military raid captured then-President Nicolás Maduro and his wife and brought them to New York to stand trial on drug trafficking charges two weeks ago.
During the visit, Machado gave Trump her Nobel Peace Prize medal “as a recognition for his unique commitment to our freedom,” she told reporters outside the US Capitol on Thursday.
“I presented the president of the United States the medal, the Nobel Peace Prize,” Machado told reporters as she departed the White House.
Trump confirmed later on social media that Machado had left the medal for him to keep, and he said it was an honour to meet her.
“She is a wonderful woman who has been through so much. María presented me with her Nobel Peace Prize for the work I have done,” Trump said in his post. “Such a wonderful gesture of mutual respect. Thank you María!”
The White House subsequently shared a picture of Machado holding the medal in a big frame while standing next to Trump in the Oval Office.
“Presented as a personal symbol of gratitude on behalf of the Venezuelan people in recognition of President Trump’s principled and decisive action to secure a free Venezuela” is written in the frame.
Thursday’s meeting between Trump and Machado took place as acting President Delcy Rodríguez delivered her first State of the Union speech in Caracas and just as US forces in the Caribbean Sea seized another sanctioned oil tanker that the Trump administration says had ties to Venezuela.
However, the future of Venezuela post-Maduro remains unclear, especially as Trump and his top advisers have surprisingly signalled their willingness to work with Rodríguez, who was Maduro’s vice president, and not Machado’s party, which is widely believed to have won the 2024 elections rejected by Maduro.
Trump, who on social media has styled himself as acting president of Venezuela and said he would be in charge of controlling oil proceeds from the country, says it would be difficult for Machado to lead because she “doesn’t have the support within or the respect within the country.”
‘We can count on President Trump’
Even before Thursday’s meeting began, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt called Machado “a remarkable and brave voice” but also said the meeting didn’t mean Trump’s opinion of her changed, calling it “a realistic assessment.”
Leavitt told reporters that Trump supported new Venezuelan elections “when the time is right” but did not say when he thought that might be.
After the closed-door meeting, Machado greeted dozens of cheering supporters waiting for her near the White House gates, stopping to hug many.
“We can count on President Trump,” she told them without elaborating, prompting some to briefly chant, “Thank you, Trump.”
She later went on to hold a closed-door meeting with a bipartisan group of senators, telling them that “if there’s not some progress, real progress towards a transition in power, and/or elections in the next several months, we should all be worried,” according to Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn.
Ahead of Machado’s visit to Washington, the Norwegian Nobel Institute, organisers of the Nobel Prize, said in a statement on Friday that a Peace Prize cannot be withdrawn, transferred, or split once it has been announced.
