US Says Trump "Rightfully Deserves" Nobel As Machado Gives Him Her Medal

The Nobel Committee must acknowledge Donald Trump's “unprecedented accomplishments” if he cannot receive the Peace Prize, White House Communications Director Steven Cheung has said.

This comes after Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, honoured last year with the Nobel Peace Prize, handed the US President her 18-carat-gold medal during a meeting last week. The White House later shared a photo of the two together, with Trump holding a large, gold-coloured frame displaying the medal. A White House official confirmed that the US President intended to keep it.

Cheung on Sunday criticised the Nobel Foundation's clarification that the prize cannot be transferred, even symbolically.

“Instead of trying to play politics, they should highlight the President's unprecedented accomplishments,” he wrote on X. He claimed that Trump “rightfully deserves the Nobel Peace Prize for bringing peace to at least eight wars.”

The @NobelPrize has now issued multiple statements/comments on President Trump (who rightfully deserves the Nobel Peace Prize for bringing peace to at least eight wars).

Instead of trying to play politics, they should highlight the President's unprecedented accomplishments. https://t.co/s09MQnA5pW

— Steven Cheung (@StevenCheung47) January 18, 2026

The Nobel Foundation previously explained that “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. A prize can therefore not, even symbolically, be passed on or further distributed.”

Machado received the Nobel Peace Prize in October for what the foundation called “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.” The award also included a diploma and 11 million Swedish crowns, about $1.19 million.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee said that the prize “remains inseparably linked to the person or organisation designated as the laureate.”

It added, “Regardless of what may happen to the medal, the diploma, or the prize money, it is and remains the original laureate who is recorded in history as the recipient of the prize.”

The foundation clarified that laureates are free to decide what to do with the physical items associated with the prize, including keeping, donating, or gifting them.