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The Nobel Foundation weighed in Sunday after Venezuela’s opposition leader gifted her Nobel Peace Prize to President Donald Trump.
Maria Corina Machado gave her Peace Prize to Trump during a meeting at the White House last week. The Nobel Foundation pushed back on the legitimacy of such a transfer on Sunday, however.
“One of the core missions of the Nobel Foundation is to safeguard the dignity of the Nobel Prizes and their administration. The Foundation upholds Alfred Nobel’s will and its stipulations. It states that the prizes shall be awarded to those who ‘have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind,’ and it specifies who has the right to award each respective prize,” the foundation wrote in a statement.
“A prize can therefore not, even symbolically, be passed on or further distributed,” the statement continued.
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Machado explained her decision to give Trump her award in an interview with Fox News.
“He deserves it,” Machado told “FOX & Friends Weekend” co-host Rachel Campos-Duffy. “It was a very emotional moment.”
Machado said she presented the prize to the president on behalf of the Venezuelan people, crediting him for the historic work he did in liberating the country from its dictator Nicolás Maduro.
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“[Venezuelans] appreciate so much what he has done for, not only the freedom of the Venezuelan people, but I would say the whole hemisphere,” she said.
As a long-time Maduro critic, Machado has been vocal in supporting Trump’s unprecedented removal of the disgraced Venezuelan leader, prompting her to credit him with the prize for the historic capture.
Trump appeared pleased and gratified by Machado’s gesture.
“It was my Great Honor to meet María Corina Machado, of Venezuela, today,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post. “María presented me with her Nobel Peace Prize for the work I have done. Such a wonderful gesture of mutual respect.”
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The Norwegian Nobel Institute had tried to shut down the transfer before Machado met with Trump earlier this month.
“Once a Nobel Prize is announced, it cannot be revoked, shared, or transferred to others,” the institute said in a statement. “The decision is final and stands for all time.”