President Donald Trump met Thursday with Venezuelan opposition chief Maria Corina Machado, who stated she offered Trump along with her Nobel Peace Prize medal.
Particulars in regards to the closed-door assembly weren’t instantly revealed by the White Home. Requested in regards to the assembly by ABC Information’ Mary Bruce, Trump stated it went “nice.”
Machado advised reporters as she was exiting the White Home that she offered Trump along with her prize and mirrored on the historical past between the 2 international locations.
“I advised him this … Hearken to this — 200 years in the past, Basic Lafayette gave Simon Bolivar a medal with George Washington’s face on it. Bolivar, since then, stored that medal for the remainder of his life,” she advised reporters.
Venezuelan opposition chief Maria Corina Machado greets supporters on Pennsylvania Avenue close to the White Home after assembly with President Donald Trump, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington.
Brendan Smialowski/AFP by way of Getty Photographs
“Truly, if you see his portraits, you may see the medal there. And it was given by Basic Lafayette as an indication of the brotherhood between the USA, folks of United States, and the folks of Venezuela of their battle for freedom in opposition to tyranny. And 200 years in historical past, the folks of Bolivar are giving again to the inheritor of Washington, a medal, on this case a medal of a Nobel Peace Prize, and a recognition for his distinctive dedication with our freedom,” she added.
Simon Bolivar liberated Venezuela and several other different Latin American international locations from Spanish rule within the 1800s. The Marquis de Lafayette was a French nationwide who volunteered to battle with American colonists throughout the Revolutionary Battle and finally rose to be one in all George Washington’s most trusted generals.
Machado did not supply any extra particulars about her assembly with Trump.
She gained the Nobel Peace Prize final yr for her work “selling democratic rights for the folks of Venezuela” and her push to maneuver the nation from dictatorship to democracy.
Machado devoted the prize to Trump, together with the folks of Venezuela, shortly after it was introduced in October 2025.
She stated final week that she want to give or share the prize with Trump, who oversaw the profitable U.S. operation to seize Venezuelan chief Nicolás Maduro. Maduro faces drug trafficking costs in New York, to which he has pleaded not guilty.
Venezuelan opposition chief Maria Corina Machado greets supporters on Pennsylvania Avenue close to the White Home after assembly with President Donald Trump, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Photographs
“I definitely would love to have the ability to personally inform him that we consider — the Venezuelan folks, as a result of it is a prize of the Venezuelan folks — definitely wish to, to offer it to him and share it with him,” Machado advised Fox Information host Sean Hannity on Monday. “What he has achieved is historic. It is an enormous step in the direction of a democratic transition.”
The Norwegian Nobel Institute issued a statement final week saying that when the Nobel Peace Prize is introduced, it “can neither be revoked, shared, nor transferred to others. As soon as the announcement has been made, the choice stands forever.”
When requested earlier this month whether or not Machado may turn into the subsequent chief of Venezuela, Trump said it might be “very robust for her” as a result of she “does not have the assist or the respect throughout the nation.”
Trump stated Wednesday he had a “nice dialog” with Venezuela’s appearing President Delcy Rodríguez, their first since authoritarian Venezuelan chief Nicolas Maduro was seized by the U.S. on Jan. 3.
“We had a name, an extended name. We mentioned numerous issues,” Trump stated throughout a invoice signing within the Oval Workplace. “And I feel we’re getting alongside very nicely with Venezuela.”
The president said last week on his social media platform that he had “cancelled the beforehand anticipated second Wave of Assaults” on Venezuela after the federal government launched a number of political prisoners, however he added that “all ships will keep in place for security and safety functions.”
This mix of images created on January 14, 2026 reveals US President Donald Trump on the White Home in Washington, DC, on March 26, 2025 and Nobel peace laureate Maria Corina Machado in Oslo, Norway, on December 11, 2025. On January 15 US President Donald Trump is scheduled to fulfill with Venezuelan opposition chief Maria Corina Machado, whose pro-democracy motion he has sidelined since toppling her nation’s chief, and whose Nobel Peace Prize he brazenly envies.
Mandel Ngan,odd Andersen/AFP by way of Getty Photographs
Trump has coveted and brazenly campaigned for successful the Nobel Prize himself since his return to workplace. White Home Director of Communications Steven Cheung slammed the Nobel Committee for its choice after Machado was introduced as the latest winner.
“[Trump] has the guts of a humanitarian, and there’ll by no means be anybody like him who can transfer mountains with the sheer power of his will,” Cheung stated in an X post. “The Nobel Committee proved they place politics over peace.”
Jorgen Watne Frydens, the Nobel Committee chair, was requested about Trump’s “marketing campaign” for the prize final yr however denied it had any impression on the decision-making course of.
“We obtain 1000’s and 1000’s of letters yearly of individuals desirous to say what, for them, results in peace,” Frydens said. “This committee sits in a room full of the portraits of all laureates and that room is full of each braveness and integrity. We base solely our choice on the work and the need of Alfred Nobel.”
