Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado said she would “love” to personally give her Nobel Peace Prize to President Donald Trump, following U.S. air strikes that led to the capture of longtime socialist strongman Nicolás Maduro — a dramatic operation that reshaped the political future of Venezuela and the region.
Machado made the remarks Monday during an appearance on Fox News’ Hannity, where host Sean Hannity pressed her on reports that Trump had declined to support her as Venezuela’s interim leader because she had accepted the Nobel Prize herself — an award Trump has publicly sought for years.
Over the weekend, Trump ordered precision air strikes in Caracas, culminating in the capture of Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. The operation drew predictable backlash from Democrats and the media, who criticized Trump for acting without prior congressional authorization and questioned the risks of regime change. Critics also pointed to Trump’s December pardon of former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, despite Maduro’s well-documented record of brutal repression, narco-trafficking ties, and his illegal seizure of a third term in July 2024 after opposition candidate Edmundo González won the election by a wide margin.
Machado herself had been barred from the ballot by Maduro’s regime, despite winning the opposition’s independently run presidential primary with more than 92 percent of the vote.
The day after Maduro’s capture, Trump publicly cast doubt on Machado’s viability as an interim leader.
“It would be very tough for her to be the leader,” Trump said, claiming she “doesn’t have the support or the respect within the country.”
According to The Washington Post, Trump’s rejection stunned members of the Venezuelan opposition. Two sources close to the White House told the paper that Machado’s decision to accept the Nobel Peace Prize last year — rather than explicitly refusing it in Trump’s name — was viewed as an “ultimate sin” by a president who has long believed he deserved the honor.
“If she had turned it down and said, ‘I can’t accept it because it’s Donald Trump’s,’ she’d be the president of Venezuela today,” one source said.
Trump has repeatedly argued over the years that his historic diplomatic efforts — including the Abraham Accords, North Korea negotiations, and Middle East ceasefires — merited a Nobel Peace Prize, particularly after former President Barack Obama received the award early in his presidency. Trump has frequently mocked the Nobel Committee for what he views as partisan double standards.
On Hannity, the Fox News host opened the interview by laying out Machado’s record and the stakes ahead.
“Following the capture of Maduro over the weekend, the end of his horrific regime, the question remains, who will succeed the brutal dictator and bring much-needed change and freedom to the country?” Hannity said.
He noted that Machado had dedicated her Nobel Prize “to the suffering people of Venezuela and to President Trump for his decisive support of our cause,” and had repeatedly praised Trump publicly for his leadership.
Machado thanked Hannity and Fox News for their “incredible support… throughout all this long journey for the cause of democracy for our people in Venezuela,” before recounting how the opposition organized behind González after she was banned from running.
“We defeated Maduro by a landslide — it was incredible, under extreme conditions, unfair conditions,” she said.
Hannity then asked directly about the Nobel Prize dedication.
“It’s not very usual,” Hannity said, “that people will dedicate the Nobel Peace Prize to the leader of a different country and say publicly, he deserves this more than I do. But you did that.”
“Let me be very clear,” Machado replied. “As soon as I learned that we had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, I dedicated it to Trump because I knew at that point, he deserved it.”
She praised Trump’s decisive military action, saying many believed it was “impossible to achieve what he has just done on Saturday, January 3rd.”
“January 3rd will go down in history as the day justice defeated tyranny,” Machado said, calling the operation a “milestone” for Venezuela, “humanity, freedom, and human dignity.”
Asked whether she had spoken directly to Trump, Machado said the two last spoke on October 10, the day the Nobel prizes were announced. She emphasized her gratitude for Trump’s leadership.
“He has taken historical actions against these narco-terrorists, to start dismantling the structure and bringing Maduro to justice,” she said. “That means that 30 million Venezuelans are now closer to freedom — but also the United States of America is a safer country nowadays.”
Hannity also addressed reports that Machado had offered to give Trump the Nobel Prize outright.
“Well, it hasn’t happened yet,” Machado said. “But I would certainly love to be able to personally tell him that we believe — the Venezuelan people, because this is a prize of the Venezuelan people — certainly want to give it to him and share it with him.”
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Meanwhile, the Washington Post reports that the U.S. is now working with Delcy Rodríguez, Maduro’s former vice president and interim leader, who controversially claimed the operation to capture Maduro had a “Zionist tint.”
