You can’t give Nobel Peace Prize to someone else, committee tells winner Machado before Trump meeting

The organizers of the Nobel Peace Prize have told winner María Corina Machado it “cannot be revoked, shared or transferred” after she suggested giving Donald Trump her 2025 award.

The institute said in a statement the decision to award a Nobel Prize is “final and stands for all time”, citing the statutes of the Nobel Foundation, which do not allow appeals.

The warning comes after the U.S. president said he would be honored to accept the prize if offered by the Venezuelan opposition leader during a planned meeting in Washington next week.

Machado’s win in October was reported to have sparked resentment for Trump, who has long expressed interest in winning the prize and has at times linked it to diplomatic achievements, even though she has been effusive in her support and dedicated her win to him.

Machado has since backed Trump’s campaign to tackle Venezuelan drug boats and overthrow Nicolás Maduro. She and fellow Vente politician Edmundo Gonzalez had been thought to be frontrunners to lead the country after the shock capture of the former Venezuelan president, but she was sidelined in the aftermath of his toppling.

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Following the U.S. raid, Trump said Machado was a “very nice woman” but that it would be “tough” for her to lead Venezuela because she did not have “respect within or the support within the country”.

In response, Machado offered to share or even personally give her prize to the president.

Speaking to Sean Hannity on Fox News on Monday, she said that presenting the prize to Trump would be an act of gratitude from the Venezuelan people for the removal of Maduro.

”Did you at any point offer to give him the Nobel Peace Prize?“ Hannity asked. “Did that actually happen?” She responded, “Well, it hasn’t happened yet.”

Of the potential offer, Trump said: “I’ve heard that she wants to do that. That could be a great honor.”

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But the Norwegian Nobel Committee and the Norwegian Nobel Institute warned on Friday: ”Once a Nobel Prize is announced, it cannot be revoked, shared or transferred to others. The decision is final and stands for all time.”

The organization also noted that committees awarding the prizes do not comment on the actions or statements of laureates after receiving awards.

Machado, who has been in hiding due to persistent threats on her life, emerged only briefly in Oslo after a three-day mission in which she was smuggled out of the country with the help of the US military for the Nobel ceremony.

The Venezuelan opposition leader, a former National Assembly member, was barred from running in Venezuela’s 2024 general election by authorities aligned with Maduro.

She backed a stand-in candidate who was widely considered to have won the vote, although Maduro claimed victory. Ballot audits by independent observers showed irregularities in the official results.