Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado greets supporters outside the White House following a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump January 15, 2026 in Washington, DC.
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Norwegian lawmakers reacted with shock and dismay to Venezuelan opposition leader The decision of María Corina Machado introduce the American president Donald Trump with his Nobel Peace Prize medal.
“This is completely unheard of,” says Janne Haaland Matlary, professor of international politics at the University of Oslo and former state secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. told public broadcaster NRK Friday.
She called Machado’s gesture “disrespectful” and “pathetic”, saying it undermined the value of the prize, awarded annually by Norway.
Raymond Johansen, a Norwegian MP from the center-left Labor Party and former mayor of Oslo, said in a message on Facebook it was incredibly embarrassing and damaging to one of the most respected and important awards in the world,” according to a Google translation.
Machado, who met Trump at the White House for the first time on Thursday, said the gift to the US president was a “deep expression of gratitude for the invaluable support of President Trump and the United States for the Venezuelan people. » This was after a US military operation captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on January 3.
The American President thanked Machado on social mediadescribing it as a “wonderful gesture of mutual respect”. The White House later posted a photo of Trump and Machado, the American president brandishing a large golden frame displaying the medal.
A bust of Swedish chemist, engineer, inventor, businessman and philanthropist Alfred Nobel (1833-1896) is pictured in front of the Norwegian Nobel Institute in Oslo, Norway, January 8, 2026.
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The Nobel Peace Center, a museum in the Norwegian capital dedicated to the Nobel Peace Prize, said in a post on: “A medal can change owners, but not the title of a Nobel Peace Prize laureate.”
The Norwegian Nobel Committee and the Norwegian Nobel Institute previously said: “The facts are clear and well established. Once a Nobel Prize is announced, it cannot be revoked, shared or transferred to others. The decision is final and valid forever”.
“Whoever got the prize got the prize,” Trygve Slagsvold Vedum, leader of the Norwegian Center Party, told NRK. “The fact that Trump accepted the medal says a lot about him as a guy: a classic scapegoat who adorns himself with the awards and work of others,” he added.
The White House was not immediately available for comment when contacted by CNBC on Friday.
“Politics rather than peace”Trump has often expressed his desire to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. The White House responded to the Nobel Committee’s decision to award the prize to Machado in October last year by stating that it had “proved that they put politics before peace”.
Some Norwegian lawmakers, however, seemed happy to reject Machado’s gesture, saying it should not be taken as an indication of who was rightfully awarded the award.
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Dag-Inge Ulstein, leader of Norway’s center-right Christian Democratic Party, told NRK there was “no doubt” that the Nobel Peace Prize still belongs to Machado.
Ine Eriksen Søreide, a former Norwegian defense minister and member of the center-right Conservative Party, agreed with Ulstein.
“Even though Trump has now received the medal, that does not mean he received the Peace Prize,” Søreide said.