A gleeful Donald Trump has been pictured grasping a second-hand Nobel Peace Prize gifted to the president after months of moaning about not winning one.
The 79-year-old happily received the award from its actual recipient, Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, during a handover at the White House on Thursday.
“I presented the president of the United States the medal, the Nobel Peace Prize,” Machado said after the gesture.
Machado had Trumpified her award, mounting it in a gold frame to match the Oval Office decor and added an inscription which flattered the president’s ego.
“To President Donald J. Trump. In gratitude for your extraordinary leadership in promoting peace through strength, advancing diplomacy, and defending liberty and prosperity,” it read.
Calling the offloaded medal “a personal symbol of gratitude on behalf of the Venezuelan people” after the U.S. military seized President Nicolás Maduro during a late-night raid on Jan. 3.
“The courage of America, and its President Donald J. Trump, will never be forgotten by the Venezuelan people.”
Conservative Machado won the Nobel Peace Prize in October for her struggle to rescue Venezuela from its fate as “a brutal, authoritarian state”.
Days after her win, she publicly stated that she was happy to give the prize to Trump.
After their meeting, Trump posted on Truth Social that Machado is a “wonderful woman” and said she “presented me with her Nobel Peace Prize for the work I have done. Such a wonderful gesture of mutual respect. Thank you María!”
However the handover of the award is merely symbolic. A Nobel Institute spokesperson previously told the Daily Beast: “A Nobel Prize can neither be revoked nor transferred to others. Once the announcement of the laureate(s) has been made, the decision stands for all time. As for the prize money, the laureate(s) are free to dispose of it as they see fit.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House to confirm if Trump plans to keep Machado’s award.
Machado spent around two and a half hours at the White House, including having a private lunch with Trump. She was photographed leaving the White House with a gift bag featuring the president’s signature.
CNN’s Kaitlan Collins said on Wednesday that Trump often takes his guests on a tour of the White House gift shop, which is located outside the Oval Office.
“It’s not clear what she got in exchange,” Collins said on The Lead with Jake Tapper of Machado’s MAGA goodie bag.
Despite being gifted the award he has coveted for months, the president’s social media post made no mention of his intention to assist Machado’s leadership plans in Venezuela.
Collins suspected Machado had other motivations. “What it comes down to is why she would do this? And that is because she wants to run Venezuela,” she said. “She obviously was the most popular opposition figure in the last elections that they had when Maduro was still there and was rigging the elections.”
Speaking on Anderson Cooper 360, Maggie Haberman of The New York Times said Trump was “very happy” with the meeting with Machado where she presented him with her prize.
“It was cordial,” Haberman said, but noted “it doesn’t change much.”
Haberman said Machado is “not incredibly highly thought of” by people around Trump.
“I don‘t think giving him the peace prize is going to change that,” she said. “It does, however, mean that he might not criticize her, and that could end up having some effect in the longer term about possible elections and what it could look like.”
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