NEW YORK TIMES: Maria Corina Machado presents Donald Trump with her Nobel Peace Prize

María Corina Machado, Venezuela’s opposition leader and last year’s Nobel Peace Prize laureate, presented her prize to President Donald Trump on Thursday during a meeting in the White House.

Mr Trump took to social media several hours later to thank her.

“María presented me with her Nobel Peace Prize for the work I have done,” he wrote. “Such a wonderful gesture of mutual respect. Thank you María!”

For her part, Ms Machado, speaking to reporters earlier after meeting with Mr Trump, said she had made the presentation “as a recognition for his unique commitment to our freedom.”

The highly unusual gesture came after months of clamouring by the American President that he had deserved the prize that she was awarded for seeking to usher a peaceful transition to democracy in Venezuela.

Ms Machado had repeatedly dedicated the prize to Mr Trump and praised the US military operation nearly two weeks ago that ousted Venezuela’s longtime authoritarian leader, Nicolás Maduro. Mr Trump has made clear that he thought he had deserved the prize, saying he had ended several wars and castigating Norway for overlooking him.

Beyond cheering US intervention in her country, <s Machado has remained silent about the bombing campaign against boats Mr Trump says are smuggling drugs. The American strikes have killed more than 100 people.

It is unclear what Ms Machado gained out of her meeting with Mr Trump. After ousting Maduro, he declined to install her in power, saying that “she’s a very nice woman, but she doesn’t have the respect” needed to lead the country.

Independently verified vote counts in Venezuela’s 2024 presidential election showed that Ms Machado’s party had beaten Maduro by a wide margin. The Venezuelan authorities, nonetheless, declared Maduro the victor, and his government embarked on a harsh repression campaign against critics of the outcome.

Speaking to supporters and reporters in Washington on Thursday, Ms Machado said she was “impressed” by how clear Mr Trump was on her country’s situation and “how much he cares.”

Her efforts to cozy up to Mr Trump have been met with scorn across the Atlantic Ocean in Norway, where the prize is regarded not just as prestigious and freighted with symbolism, but also as the country’s primary soft-power tool — and where Mr Trump is deeply unpopular. The Nobel Institute, which awards it, has been in serious damage-control mode.

Last Friday, after Ms Machado floated the idea of sharing the prize with Mr Trump in a Fox News interview, the institute offered a reminder about what the rules governing the award allow, saying that the facts were “clear and well established.”

“Once a Nobel Prize is announced, it cannot be revoked, shared or transferred to others,” the institute wrote. “The decision is final and stands for all time.”

The day before Ms Machado arrived in Washington, Kristian Harpviken, the director of the institute, who is also the secretary of the committee that chooses award recipients, said he would not be drawn further into the deepening controversy.

“The prize is awarded on the basis of the laureate’s contributions by the time that the committee’s decision is taken,” he said.

That explanation has been insufficient for many Norwegians.

“A Nobel committee can never guard against peace prize laureates committing acts that run counter to the intention of the prize,’’ Lena Lindgren, a columnist for the Norwegian weekly Morgenbladet, said in an interview. “But what is new now is that the prize is being used in a political game, a warlike game.”

Ms Machado’s trip to Washington also drew derision from those now in power in Venezuela. Speaking in Caracas on Thursday, Venezuela’s interim leader, Delcy Rodríguez, who gained the Trump administration’s support in taking over after Maduro’s ouster, took aim at Ms Machado in a thinly veiled reference.

“And if one day, as acting president, I have to go to Washington, I will do so with my head held high, not on my knees,” she said.

What makes the dispute swirling around Ms Machado unusual, according to Asle Sveen, a former researcher at the Nobel Institute, is Norwegians’ particularly dim view of Mr Trump.

Ms Machado “has dedicated her Peace Prize to a highly controversial President, to put it mildly,” he said. “It is nearly universally accepted in Norway that Donald Trump attacks liberal democracy.”

A Norwegian tabloid, Nettavisen, conducted a poll before the announcement of the award that found three-quarters of respondents were against it being bestowed on Mr Trump, even if he were instrumental in orchestrating a peace agreement in Ukraine or the Gaza Strip.

“The Nobel Committee has compromised the prize” by not foreseeing how Ms Machado and Mr Trump would use it to justify military intervention in Venezuela, Lindgren said. “Norway has been politically embarrassed and has failed to manage the symbolic capital.”

Following the 2024 election in Venezuela, Machado went into hiding for more than a year. In December, she secretly left Venezuela to receive her award in Norway. She missed the award ceremony but appeared in Oslo to greet supporters. Her escape was orchestrated by a company run by U.S. veterans with special operations and intelligence training.

Spokespeople for Machado did not respond to requests for comment for this article.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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