The Nobel Foundation reaffirmed that its peace prize can’t be “passed on” after laureate Maria Corina Machado gave President Donald Trump her award.
In a statement issued after Machado, Venezuela’s opposition leader, met with Trump and gifted him her award, the Nobel Foundation denounced the move without directly mentioning it.
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“One of the core missions of the Nobel Foundation is to safeguard the dignity of the Nobel Prizes and their administration. The Foundation upholds Alfred Nobel’s will and its stipulations. It states that the prizes shall be awarded to those who ‘have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind,’ and it specifies who has the right to award each respective prize,” it wrote.
“A prize can therefore not, even symbolically, be passed on or further distributed,” the foundation added.
A spokesperson for the Nobel Foundation had already said as much to the Washington Examiner on Thursday after Machado’s gift, stating that “a Nobel Prize can neither be revoked nor transferred to others. Once the announcement of the laureate(s) has been made, the decision stands for all time. As for the prize money, the laureate(s) are free to dispose of it as they see fit.”
Machado won the award in 2025 for her role in peacefully opposing the regime of former Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro, whom Trump captured on Jan. 3. Trump remained cordial with Machado but surprised many when he said at a press conference the same day that she was a “very nice woman, but she doesn’t have the respect within the country.”
“I think it would be very tough for her to be the leader,” he said.
Machado has since mounted a charm offensive to try and win Trump over, as her rival, acting Venezuelan President Delcy Rodriguez, does the same. Machado gifted Trump her Nobel Peace Prize during her meeting with the president on Thursday, justifying her move with the precedent of American Revolutionary War hero Gen. Marquis de Lafayette gifting a medal to Latin American hero Simón Bolívar.
“I presented the president of the United States the medal — the Nobel Peace Prize,” Machado told reporters Thursday afternoon. “And I told him this, listen to this: ‘Two hundred years ago, Gen. Lafayette gave Simón Bolívar a medal with George Washington’s face on it. Bolivar, since then, kept that medal for the rest of his life. Actually, when you see his portraits, you can see the medal there.”
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“It was given by Gen. Lafayette as a sign of the brotherhood between the United States and the people of Venezuela in their fight for freedom against tyranny,” she added. “And 200 years in history, the people of Bolivar are giving back to the heir of Washington a medal, in this case a medal of Nobel Peace Prize, and the recognition for his unique commitment with our freedom.”
Trump has long expressed his desire to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, with 2025 marking his most significant push for the award following his mediation of several conflicts.