Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado arrives at the U.S. Capitol to meet U.S. senators after her meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House, in Washington, D.C., U.S., January 15, 2026. REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz
Political analysts and observers were stunned on Thursday after a foreign leader gave President Donald Trump a "pathetic" gift.
Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado visited the White House on Thursday, where she met with senators and presented her Nobel Peace Prize to Trump and offered to share it with him. Trump has previously insisted that he should have won the prize over Machado for "settling eight wars" while in office. Machado was selected because of her “tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy,” according to The Nobel Foundation.
“I presented the President of the United States the medal, the peace, the Nobel Peace Prize... In recognition for his unique commitment with our freedom," Machado said, according to Fox News reporter Aishah Hasnie.
Reports of Machado presenting the peace prize to Trump caused a stir online.
"The amount of self-humiliation that some inflict on themselves to please the Mad King is absolutely astounding," Bruno Tertrais, deputy director of the French think tank FRS, posted on X.
"Trump is such an utter, pathetic scumbag for taking this," foreign policy reporter Laura Rozen posted on X.
"Not since Putin took Robert Kraft's Super Bowl ring ..." journalist Ben Jacobs posted on X.