Donald Trump Has Received a Consolation Nobel Peace Prize — Does That Count?

When it comes to awards, President Donald Trump has received quite a few. There is an entire Wikipedia page devoted to his accolades. For our money, the strangest award was given to him in October 2024 when Trump was visiting the hurricane-ravaged city of Swannanoa, N.C., per Newsweek. Hurricane Helene had just ripped through a large part of the state, but the president was feeling pretty good after Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-N.C.) gave him a McDonald's French Fries Certification Pin.

The award that Trump wants the most, and which continues to elude him, is the Nobel Peace Prize. He has been nominated three times, twice by far-right Norwegian politician Christian Tybring-Gjedde and once by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna. His obsession with the coveted prize has led Trump to pester the 2025 recipient about giving it to him. Is the Nobel Peace Prize transferable? Here's what we know.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee and the Norwegian Nobel Institute are pretty firm about their feelings on transferring the Nobel Peace Prize to another recipient. That's a no from them, dawg. That makes sense because winning this award involves doing an enormous amount of work. For Maria Corina Machado, who earned the prize in 2025, her efforts to bring a stable democracy back to Venezuela often put her life at risk.

In a January 2026 update to its website, the Nobel Institute revealed it has received a "number of requests for comments regarding the permanence of a Nobel Peace Prize laureate’s status." This is undoubtedly in response to Trump's very public statements about Machado giving him the prize. "The facts are clear and well established," it said. "Once a Nobel Prize is announced, it cannot be revoked, shared, or transferred to others. The decision is final and stands for all time."

In what feels like an Oscar-winning performance, Machado flew to Washington, D.C. in order to ceremoniously give Trump her actual Nobel Peace Prize. In a photo shared to the White House's Instagram, a smiling Trump is holding up the award in front of a framed copy of the Declaration of Independence.

The Nobel Committee also addressed the notion of giving away one's prize, saying it will not "comment upon what the Peace Prize Laureates may say and do after they have been awarded the prize." The Committee went on to say it only "evaluates the work and efforts of the nominated candidates up to the moment it is decided who shall be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for a given year." That being said, the Committee is still able to follow the future work of recipients, but won't comment on it.

The Nobel Peace Prize itself is a 18 carat (fairmined) gold medal. It is 6.6 centimeters in diameter and weighs 196 grams. Its value fluctuates. According to The New York Times, James Watson sold his 2014 medal for $4 million. In 2022, Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov auctioned his off for $103.5 million. The proceeds went to Ukrainian child refugees.