Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado waves to supporters outside the White House following a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump on January 15, 2026 in Washington, DC.
Chip Somodevilla | Getty Images News | Getty Images
Norwegian lawmakers reacted with shock and dismay over Venezuela opposition leader María Corina Machado’s decision to present U.S. President Donald Trump with her Nobel Peace Prize medal.
“It’s completely unheard of,” Janne Haaland Matlary, a professor of international politics at the University of Oslo and former state secretary in the foreign affairs ministry, told public broadcaster NRK on Friday.
She called Machado’s gesture “disrespectful” and “pathetic,” saying it undermined the value of the prize, which the Norwegian Nobel Committee awards annually.
Raymond Johansen, a Norwegian lawmaker for the center-left Labour Party and former governing mayor of Oslo, said in a Facebook post it was “incredibly embarrassing and damaging to one of the world’s most respected and important prizes,” according to a Google translation.
Machado, who met Trump at the White House for the first time on Thursday, said the gift to U.S. president was a “profound expression of gratitude for the invaluable support of President Trump and the United States to the Venezuelan people.” It was after a U.S. military operation seized Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, on Jan. 3.
The U.S. president thanked Machado on social media, describing it as a “wonderful gesture of mutual respect.” The White House later posted a photo of Trump and Machado, with the U.S. president holding up a large, gold-colored frame displaying the medal.
A bust of Swedish chemist, engineer, inventor, businessman, and philanthropist Alfred Nobel (1833-1896) is pictured outside the Norwegian Nobel Institute in Oslo, Norway on January 8, 2026.
Jonathan Nackstrand | Afp | Getty Images
The Nobel Peace Center, a museum in Norway’s capital dedicated to the Nobel Peace Prize, said in a post on X: “A medal can change owners, but the title of a Nobel Peace Prize laureate cannot.”
The Norwegian Nobel Committee and the Norwegian Nobel Institute had previously said: “The facts are clear and well established. Once a Nobel Prize is announced, it cannot be revoked, shared, or transferred to others. The decision is final and stands for all time.”
“Whoever has received the prize has received the prize,” Trygve Slagsvold Vedum, leader of Norway’s Centre Party, told NRK. “The fact that Trump accepts the medal says something about him as a type: a classic scapegoat who will adorn himself with other people’s awards and work,” he added.
The White House was not immediately available to comment when contacted by CNBC on Friday.
‘Politics over peace’
Trump has frequently spoken about his desire to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The White House responded to the Nobel Committee’s decision to award Machado the prize in October last year by saying they had “proved they place politics over peace.”
Some Norwegian lawmakers appeared happy to brush off Machado’s gesture, however, saying it should not be seen as an indication of who the award rightfully belongs to.
Dag-Inge Ulstein, leader of Norway’s center-right Christian Democratic Party, told NRK that there is “no doubt” that the Nobel Peace Prize still belongs to Machado.
Ine Eriksen Søreide, Norway’s former defense minister and a member of the center-right Conservative Party, agreed with Ulstein.
“Even though Trump has now received the medal, it does not mean that he has received the Peace Prize,” Søreide said.
