It was either the best or worst trade in history, depending on if your name is Donald Trump or Maria Corina Machado.
Of course, I’m talking about the swap that played out last week, when Venezuelan opposition leader Machado arrived at the White House with the Nobel Peace Prize and left with… a gift bag.
Say what you want about Trump’s aptitude (or lack of, depending on who you ask) when it comes to making deals, but the fact he was able to convince Machado to hand over her Nobel Peace Prize is nothing short of a steal, even if the Nobel Foundation are never going to recognize or ratify Trump as the award’s latest recipient.
It’s hardly been a secret that Trump covets the Nobel Peace Prize, won by presidents including Barack Obama and Jimmy Carter before him. The POTUS has actively campaigned to be handed the award, telling anyone who will listen that he’s ended eight wars.
He was highly critical of the decision to give the 2025 Prize to someone else, regularly ranting about corruption and unfairness in the way only Trump can.
The someone who did get the award was Maria Corina Machado, a vocal critic of former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro (recently captured by Trump), who received the award for her efforts in furthering democracy in her home country.
By contrast, Trump’s erratic political moves continue to cause upheaval in the U.S., while he recent warned Iran of potential U.S. military action to combat the chaos in the Middle Eastern country, and of course, is so obsessed on bringing Greenland under American control that he has refused to rule out an invasion there.
One can imagine why most people reacted with shock, then, when Machado traveled to the White House last week and physically handed her Nobel Peace Prize medal to Trump, encased in a decorative frame with a personal message for the President.
“To President Donald J. Trump,” it read. “In gratitude for your extraordinary leadership in promoting peace through strength, advancing diplomacy, and defending liberty and prosperity.”
As per CNN, Machado hopes that by gifting the medal to Trump – thereby sating his desire to get his hands on one – she would secure U.S. backing to lead Venezuela following the ousting of Maduro.
Whether or not that will be the case remains to be seen, but Machado was at least sighted departing the White House with a goody bag. The Trump-branded gift bag’s content are a mystery, though Page Six claims that similar bags were handed out to guests at Trump’s second-term inauguration in January 2025.
Those bags reportedly included a medal featuring Trump and Vice President JD Vance, a large red leather journal with a drawing of the US Capitol embossed in gold, a red leather coin with the Capitol on it, as well as a glittering White House Christmas ornament.
Despite Machado giving Trump her Nobel Peace Prize (a move met with dismay by many online), the actual honor remains hers irrespective of who has the physical medal.
Very likely to Trump’s chagrin, the Nobel Peace Centre, based in Oslo, Norway, clarified that Nobel medals cannot be shared or transferred, explaining in a post on X: “A medal can change owners, but the title of a Nobel Peace Prize laureate cannot.”
What did you make of the trade between Trump and Machado? Let us know in the comments.
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