Trump Nobel Peace Prize 2026: ‘Pathetic’ president hammered for accepting Venezuelan leader’s award
President Donald Trump was slammed across social media after he accepted Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado’s Nobel Peace Prize at the White House Thursday.
“It was my Great Honor to meet María Corina Machado, of Venezuela, today,” Trump posted to his Truth Social account Thursday. “She is a wonderful woman who has been through so much. María presented me with her Nobel Peace Prize for the work I have done. Such a wonderful gesture of mutual respect. Thank you María!”
Asked by Fox News’s “Fox & Friends” why she gave Trump her prize, Machado said, “Because he deserves it. It was a very emotional moment.”
Both Trump and Machado received criticism for what critics of the American president called a “pathetic” move.
“He is so utterly pathetic and embarrassing and grotesque and cowardly and creepy and contemptible,” tweeted,” Trump opponent and liberal social media influencer Seth Abramson. “He will of course now put this grimy theft on full display by situating his stolen trophy in the center of the Oval Office so that his risible, pimpish thuggery is in every TV shot.”
Michael McFaul, the U.S. ambassador to Russia under then-President Barack Obama, said he was shocked at Trump’s lack of shame.
“I just can’t understand how Trump feels no embarrassment over accepting someone else’s prize,” he tweeted.
Trump and Machado met Thursday at the White House, where the Venezuelan opposition figure presented Trump with the prize.
It came after a report earlier this month that Trump did not back Machado as Venezuela’s next leader following the capture of Nicolas Maduro because she accepted the prize that Trump deeply coveted.
A White House official said Machado committed the “ultimate sin” by accepting the award, according to The New York Times report.
Jay Nordlinger, senior resident fellow at the Renew Democracy Initiative, said Americans should be “ashamed” over Thursday’s meeting between Trump and Machado.
“It’s disgusting that a great dissident and Nobel peace laureate should have to debase herself this way,” Nordlinger tweeted of Machado. “I understand why she did it. I’m sure [U.S. Secretary of State Marco] Rubio and the others advised her to. I hope it proves worth it. But we Americans should be ashamed — flat-out ashamed.”
Journalist Mehdi Hasan said the display was “so pathetic. For both of them.”
Meanwhile the Nobel Peace Center issued a statement Thursday noting that Machado giving the prize to Trump does not mean she is no longer a Nobel laureate.
“As the Norwegian Nobel Committee states: ‘Once a Nobel Prize is announced, it cannot be revoked, shared, or transferred to others. The decision is final and stands for all time,’” the center tweeted:
