Machado can’t hand Peace Prize to Trump – Nobel organizers
A Nobel Peace Prize cannot be withdrawn or handed over to another person, the organization behind the award has said, ruling out the possibility of it being transferred to US President Donald Trump.
The clarification came after the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Venezuelan opposition figure Maria Corina Machado, told Fox News earlier this week that “the Venezuelan people, because this is a prize of the Venezuelan people, certainly want to give it to him [Trump] and share it with him.”
The US president has been actively campaigning to get the prize since taking office a year ago, but the organizers opted to present it to Machado during a ceremony in Oslo, Norway in December.
A statement published on the Nobel Prize office website on Friday stressed that the award “can neither be revoked, shared, nor transferred to others. Once the announcement has been made, the decision stands for all time.”
The statement did not directly mention Trump or Machado, but noted that the organizers “receive a number of requests for comments regarding the permanence of a Nobel Peace Prize laureate’s status.”
“As a matter of principle, the Norwegian Nobel Committee will not comment upon what the Peace Prize Laureates may say and do after they have been awarded the prize,” it added.
When asked by Fox News about the willingness of the Venezuelan opposition figure to give her Nobel Prize to him, Trump responded by saying that he has “heard that she wants to do that, that would be a great honor.”
The US president also announced that Machado will be visiting Washington next week. “I look forward to saying hello to her,” he said.
Machado fully backed the US intervention into Venezuela and the kidnapping of its president, Nicolas Maduro, in early January. However, last week, Trump dismissed her as a potential new head of the oil-rich Latin American country. “I think it’d be very tough for her to be the leader. She doesn’t have the support or the respect within the country. She’s a very nice woman but she doesn’t have the respect,” he said.
