President Donald Trump announced Thursday that he will be meeting with the Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado next week and is eyeing her recently awarded Nobel Peace Prize.
Trump has refused to support Machado’s bid to lead Venezuela following the capture of President Nicolás Maduro last week, saying she was “not respected” in the country. Machado praised Trump for his intervention in Venezuela and offered him her Nobel Prize. “The Venezuelan people … we want to give it to him, share it with him,” Machado said on Monday.
It appears that Trump is ready to take her up on the offer.
“I understand she’s coming in next week sometime,” Trump told Fox News host Sean Hannity in a White House interview. “I look forward to saying hello to her.”
When Hannity asked Trump about Machado offering him the Nobel Prize, Trump confirmed that “she wants to do that.”
unspeakably pathetic stuff from Trump here as he says he’d be honored to accept María Corina Machado’s Nobel Prize if she wants to give it up to him pic.twitter.com/AhLvnBqRAO
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 9, 2026
“It would be a great honor,” Trump said, going on to say that not receiving the award has been “a major embarrassment to Norway,” where the Nobel Prize is awarded, repeating his false claim that he “ended eight wars.”
Trump’s longstanding desire for a Nobel Peace Prize was a major reason for him withholding support from Machado, according to White House insiders who spoke with the Washington Post earlier this month.
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“If she had turned it down and said, ‘I can’t accept it because it’s Donald Trump’s,’ she’d be the president of Venezuela today,” one of the insiders said.
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