Maria Corina Machado Has Now Given Her Nobel Peace Prize to Donald Trump

Although he has never totally explained why it's so important to him, Donald Trump has long insisted that he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize. While the Nobel committee has yet to give him one, he now has one second-hand thanks to the efforts of Maria Machado, the leader of the Venezuelan opposition.

Machado is the latest person to receive the award, and during a meeting in the White House on Jan. 15, she gave the prize to the president, in part it appears because she wants his help in coming to power in Venezuela. Here's what we know about what she won the prize for in the first place.

As the Nobel committee explained, Machado won the prize for "her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy."

Machado won the award because, as the leader of the Venezuelan opposition, she has stood for years against the authoritarian rule of Nicholas Maduro.

"Ms. Machado is receiving the Nobel Peace Prize first and foremost for her efforts to advance democracy in Venezuela. But democracy is also in retreat internationally. Democracy — understood as the right to freely express one’s opinion, to cast one’s vote and to be represented in elective government — is the foundation of peace both within countries and between countries," the Novel committee explained on its website.

Machado won an award that Donald Trump very much believed he deserved, and she gave it to him in part because she's hoping that, now that he has arrested Nicolas Maduro, he can push for her to take power, or at least for there to be free and fair elections in Venezuela.

The prize was accompanied by a dedication that read: “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.”

Although Machado is clearly hoping to use the medal to curry favor with Trump, the Nobel committee has once again reiterated that medals cannot be transferred.

“A medal can change owners, but the title of a Nobel Peace Prize laureate cannot,” the committee wrote on X (formerly Twitter).

The news that Machado gave Trump the Nobel Peace Prize came following weeks of reporting that suggested that the Trump administration favored Delcy Rodriguez, Maduro's ex-vice president, as the country's next leader. This comes after the administration suggested that Maduro's regime should be toppled, which installing Rodriguez would not do.

While the future of Venezuela is very much up in the air, it seems that its potential leaders are vying for influence with the president of the United States. Trump may never have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, but he now has one, and it's unclear whether he knows or cares about the difference.