The recipient of last year’s Nobel Peace Prize has faced criticism after unexpectedly offering her award to President Donald Trump following the arrest of former Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro.
María Corina Machado, a leading figure in Venezuela’s opposition, was honored with the Peace Prize in October 2025 after Trump had remarked on several occasions about his own qualifications for the accolade.
Machado was an elected member of Venezuela’s National Assembly from 2011 to 2014. She received the Nobel Peace Prize during a ceremony on December 10, 2025, in Oslo, Norway.
Before the award was presented, Trump had expressed his thoughts on the prize, referring to it during his first presidency.
In a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House in February 2025, Trump stated, “They will never give me a Nobel Peace Prize. I deserve it, but they will never give it to me.”
Trump has repeatedly claimed that his efforts have been instrumental in ending various global conflicts.
“I’ve done six wars, I’ve ended six wars,” the president remarked during a summit involving Ukrainian and European leaders. “If you look at the six deals I settled this year, they were all at war. I didn’t do any ceasefires.”
Machado, who was a political adversary of Maduro, expressed her enthusiasm regarding the former president’s dramatic arrest by the US on January 3.
“January 3 will go down in history as the day justice defeated tyranny,” she declared on Monday (January 5). “It’s a milestone, and it’s not only huge for the Venezuelan people and our future, I think it’s a huge step for humanity, for freedom, and human dignity.”
In an interview with Fox’s Sean Hannity on Monday, Machado was asked if she would consider giving the award to Trump in light of recent events.
“Well, it hasn’t happened yet, but I certainly love to be able to personally tell him that we believe the Venezuelan people, because this is a prize of the Venezuelan people, certainly want to give it to him and share it with him,” Machado replied.
Her comments have sparked backlash on social media platforms, with one user questioning, “What type of leader would she be for Venezuela if she bows down to another world leader this fast?”
Another user went on to describe the Nobel Peace Prize as a ‘joke’ following Machado’s statements.
In the meantime, Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, have been indicted on various charges, including narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine trafficking conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess such weapons against the United States.
Maduro has entered a plea of not guilty, asserting that he remains ‘still president’.