WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump missed out on the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize, but a combination of geopolitics and chance could still bring him home with the 18-carat gold medal.
The actual recipient of the award, Maria Colina Machado, is scheduled to visit the White House on Thursday amid speculation that she may present the award to President Trump in gratitude for the U.S. military raid that deposed Venezuela’s repressive leader Nicolas Maduro.
Machado is a Venezuelan rebel who was chosen by the Nobel Prize selection committee last year for the award that has become a fixture of Trump. She was praised for her work promoting democratic rights in this country, but it was this attitude that forced her into hiding.
After the January 3 U.S. attack, Machado said he should become Venezuela’s new leader, given the support his coalition received in Venezuela’s 2024 elections.
But for now, the Trump administration is keeping her on the sidelines. Instead, President Trump relies on the remaining forces of the Maduro regime to guide the country on a day-to-day basis, supporting Maduro’s Vice President Delcy Rodriguez as the country’s top executive. Hours after the attack, President Trump called Machado a “very nice woman” but said she lacked “respect” at home.
Since then, Trump has not changed his view about Machado’s limits, a senior White House official said in an interview Wednesday. The official added that Venezuela’s interim leadership has responded positively to the Trump administration’s requests and lived up to its expectations.
President Trump told reporters Wednesday that he spoke with interim President Rodríguez and found her to be a “great person.”
White House officials said Machado’s visit was something she had requested and Trump had agreed to as a courtesy.
A certain convergence of interests is the basis for future meetings. Each has what the other wants.
Machado wants to lead Venezuela’s government, whose leadership is determined by the ballot box. To achieve this, we need President Trump to lead the transition to democracy.
And Trump wants recognition for his peace efforts. He says he deserves not one but multiple Nobel Prizes for the various wars he claims to have ended with his intervention.
“President Trump is worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize, time and time again,” White House press secretary Anna Kelly said in a prepared statement. “The president has been directly involved in major conflicts, leveraged the tools of America’s military to superior consumer markets, and brought peace to decades of war around the world. But as he has said, he doesn’t care about reputation, he cares only about saving lives.”
What Machado will do with his prize money is looming in the meeting. Norway’s Nobel Institute said in a statement last week that Machado was the laureate and that the immutable reality “will never change.” The institute said prizes cannot be shared or transferred.
However, there appears to be nothing stopping Machado from offering his Nobel Prize-winning product to Trump if he so chooses. After receiving the award, she dedicated it to Trump and praised his support for the democracy movement.
In an interview last week, Fox News’ Sean Hannity asked her if she had offered Trump any prizes.
“It hasn’t happened yet,” she said, adding that the Peace Prize truly belongs to the Venezuelan people and “we definitely want to give it to him and share it.”
Machado’s communications adviser told NBC News “no comment” when asked if he planned to present Trump with the award during Thursday’s visit.
If Machado made an offer, would Trump accept? He has already flown a luxury jet from Qatar, which he intends to use as a replacement for the Boeing 747 known as Air Force One.
“If she wants to give him something, he’s not the kind of person to refuse a gift,” a second White House official said in an interview Wednesday.
“I think it’s a great thing for her to do that,” said Robert O’Brien, who served as national security adviser during Trump’s first term. “I think it’s definitely a sign of good faith and gratitude that he ousted President Maduro and dealt a blow to her and the rebels. Trump took a huge risk in doing that.”
“The Nobel Peace Prize committee said she couldn’t do it, but she said she could do whatever she wanted,” O’Brien continued. “Are they going to take away the money?” (Peace Prize winners receive about $1.2 million in addition to their gold medals and certificates.)
A number of world leaders and American lawmakers have formally nominated Trump for the 2026 award. A five-member committee appointed by the Norwegian parliament will vet the candidates and announce its decision in October.
Trump’s lack of a Nobel Prize winner seems to make his unhappiness even more pronounced. He said earlier this month that his failure to win the award was a “shame” for Norway.
Mark Nathanson, who served as ambassador to Norway in the Biden administration, said the complaints are unlikely to sweeten his chances.
“Norwegians are very honest and transparent,” he said in an interview. “When you go to a restaurant, even if you’re an ambassador, you have to wait your turn. That’s the way we live in society.”
If anything, President Trump’s chances of winning the award this year have diminished, said Kalle As, who served as Norway’s ambassador to the United States from 2013 to 2020. He mentioned President Trump’s threat to acquire Greenland, a territory of Denmark.
“Annexing Greenland and blackmailing European countries does nothing to strengthen President Trump’s chances of winning the award,” Aas said in an interview.
Louis Lukens, a senior official at the US embassy in London during the Trump administration, said the appropriate response for a US president if someone else offered him the Nobel Prize would be to politely decline.
“Any other president would have said, ‘Thank you very much. That’s very kind of you, but this is your award. Don’t leave it here. It’s yours. I refuse to accept it,'” Lukens said. “But I can see President Trump saying, ‘Thank you so much. I deserve it. I’m going to keep it.'”
Newt Gingrich, a former Republican House speaker and author of the book “Understanding Trump,” also predicted that Trump would accept the award if Machado offered it.
“She’s going to give it to him, and he’s going to put it somewhere in the Oval Office,” Gingrich said in an interview. “This is a move by President Trump.”
“Mr. Trump is a unique person who has great strengths and sometimes has moments where you wonder, ‘What is going on?'” Gingrich added.
What President Trump does with this gift is another matter. Will Machado’s award stay in the White House? Why not visit his presidential library, where the Qatari airliner looks like it’s headed after his term ends?
President Theodore Roosevelt’s 1906 Nobel Peace Prize now hangs in the Roosevelt Room, a few steps from the Oval Office. O’Brien said it would be a fitting place for Machado to receive the award.
“I’m just watching in amazement to see what happens next,” Gingrich said.
