Nobel Institute says Machado's Peace Prize cannot be transferred

Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado will not be able to hand over her 2025 Nobel Peace Prize to President Donald Trump, despite recent suggestions she has made about doing so, the Norwegian Nobel Institute said. In a statement, the Nobel Institute clarified that a "Nobel Prize can neither be revoked, shared, nor transferred to others. Once the announcement has been made, the decision stands for all time." "It is not possible to revoke a Nobel Peace Prize. Neither Alfred Nobel’s will nor the Statutes of the Nobel Foundation mention any such possibility," according to the Nobel Institute.

The Nobel Institute's stance follows Trump's announcement during a sit-down interview that aired Jan. 8 on the Fox News show that Machado would be coming to the United States "next week sometime." During the interview, host Sean Hannity asked Trump if he plans to meet Machado to accept her 2025 Nobel Peace Prize if she gifted it to him. "I understand she's coming in next week sometime and I look forward to saying hello to her and I've heard that she wants to do that. That would be a great honor," Trump responded. Trump, who has frequently expressed interest in winning the Nobel Peace Prize and has linked it to diplomatic achievements, said he would be honored to accept the prize if Machado offered it during a planned meeting in Washington next week.

On Jan. 5, Machado, also appearing on Fox News' "Hannity", said that presenting her Nobel Peace Prize to Trump would serve as an act of gratitude from the Venezuelan people for removing leader Nicolás Maduro, who the United States captured on Jan. 3. “Did you at any point offer to give him the Nobel Peace Prize?” Hannity asked. “Did that actually happen?” Machado responded, “Well, it hasn’t happened yet."

Machado, 58, won the Nobel Peace Prize back in October 2025 for "her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy," according to the Nobel Institute. The Venezuelan opposition leader's fight for democracy dates back to the early 2000s, when she co-founded the volunteer civil association Súmate, which seeks to strengthen the foreign nation's democracy through various means, including monitoring elections.