WASHINGTON, Jan 17:  U.S. President Donald Trump said on Jan. 16 that Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate María Corina Machado offered him her Nobel Peace Prize, calling the gesture “very nice,” a day after the two met behind closed doors in the Oval Office.

Asked by a reporter as he was about to board Marine One on the White House South Lawn why he would want someone else’s Nobel Prize, Trump replied, “Well, she offered it to me.”

“I thought it was very nice,” Trump said. “She said, ‘you know, you’ve ended eight wars and nobody deserves this prize more than, in history, than you do.’ And I thought it was a very nice gesture. And by the way, I think she’s a very fine woman. And we’ll be talking again.”

The remarks followed a Jan. 15 White House meeting between Trump and Machado, 58, during which she presented him with her Nobel Peace Prize medal. Images released by the White House showed Trump holding the 18-carat gold medal in a large gold frame bearing the inscription: “In Gratitude for Your Extraordinary Leadership in Promoting Peace through Strength, Advancing Diplomacy, and Defending Liberty and Property.”

“Maria presented me with her Nobel Peace Prize for the work I have done,” Trump wrote on Truth Social shortly after the meeting. “Such a wonderful gesture of mutual respect. Thank you Maria!”

Machado confirmed the presentation, telling reporters after leaving the White House and heading to Capitol Hill: “I presented the president of the United States the medal, the Nobel Peace Prize,” adding that she did so “as a recognition for his unique commitment with our freedom.”

The meeting came less than two weeks after U.S. forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, on Jan. 3 and transferred them to New York. The couple have since been arraigned in Manhattan federal court on charges including drug trafficking, pleaded not guilty, and remain in U.S. custody in Brooklyn.

It also followed Trump’s public backing of Delcy Rodríguez, Venezuela’s vice president under Maduro, who was sworn in last week as the country’s interim president and has said she wants to collaborate with the U.S. administration.

Political observers say Machado’s gesture appeared aimed at softening Trump’s stance toward her after he sidelined her in favor of Rodríguez. Machado has sought a role in a new Venezuelan government after being barred by the Maduro regime from running in the 2024 presidential election, later backing opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia. While Urrutia won, authorities loyal to Maduro declared victory.

The Nobel Committee said Machado received the Nobel Peace Prize “first and foremost for her efforts to advance democracy in Venezuela,” and later stressed that the honor cannot be transferred. “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 said.

Machado framed her gift in historical terms, recalling how the Marquis de Lafayette once handed a medal bearing the image of George Washington to Venezuelan independence leader Simón Bolívar in 1825. “Two hundred years in history, the people of Bolívar are giving back to the heir of Washington a medal,” she said, “in this case, the medal of the Nobel Peace Prize as a recognition for his unique commitment with our freedom.”

Trump later confirmed on social media that Machado had left the medal for him to keep and said it was an honor to meet her. “She is a wonderful woman who has been through so much,” he wrote. “Such a wonderful gesture of mutual respect. Thank you María!”

The White House subsequently posted a photo of Machado standing beside Trump in the Oval Office as he held the framed medal. The accompanying text read: “Presented as a personal symbol of gratitude on behalf of the Venezuelan people in recognition of President Trump’s principled and decisive action to secure a free Venezuela.”

Despite the cordial optics, Trump has expressed doubts about Machado’s ability to lead Venezuela, saying she “doesn’t have the support within or the respect within the country,” even as her party is widely believed to have won the disputed 2024 election. He has given no timetable for new elections.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt described Machado as “a remarkable and brave voice,” but said the meeting did not alter Trump’s assessment. “It’s a realistic assessment,” she said, adding that Trump supports new Venezuelan elections “when the time is right,” without specifying when.

Leavitt said Machado sought the meeting without setting expectations and spent about two and a half hours at the White House. “I don’t think he needs to hear anything from Ms. Machado,” she said during the meeting, other than to have “a frank and positive discussion about what’s taking place in Venezuela.”

Afterward, Machado greeted cheering supporters near the White House gates, hugging many. “We can count on President Trump,” she told them, prompting brief chants of “Thank you, Trump.”

Machado later met privately with a bipartisan group of U.S. senators. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said she warned lawmakers that “if there’s not some progress, real progress towards a transition in power, and/or elections in the next several months, we should all be worried,” adding that she told them Delcy Rodríguez was “in many ways, worse than Maduro.”

Asked whether Machado received any commitment from the White House on elections, Murphy said, “No, I don’t think she got any commitment from them.”

Republican Sen. Bernie Moreno of Ohio praised Trump’s actions, saying Machado “delivered a message that loud and clear: What President Trump did was the most important, significant event in Latin America.”

Machado’s Washington visit coincided with U.S. forces seizing another sanctioned oil tanker in the Caribbean Sea allegedly linked to Venezuela, part of a broader U.S. effort to take control of Venezuelan crude sales. Leavitt said interim authorities in Caracas were cooperating with Washington and planned to release more detainees held under Maduro, including five Americans freed this week.