Machado presents her Nobel award to Trump, prompting incredulity in Norway

[Shrek]

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/01/16/trump-machado-norway-.html

Norwegian lawmakers reacted with shock and dismay over Venezuela opposition leader María Corina Machado’s decision to present U.S. President Donald Trump with her Nobel Peace Prize medal.

“It’s completely unheard of,” Janne Haaland Matlary, a professor of international politics at the University of Oslo and former state secretary in the foreign affairs ministry, told public broadcaster NRK on Friday.

She called Machado’s gesture “disrespectful” and “pathetic,” saying it undermined the value of the prize, which the Norwegian Nobel Committee awards annually.

Raymond Johansen, a Norwegian lawmaker for the center-left Labour Party and former governing mayor of Oslo, said in a Facebook post it was “incredibly embarrassing and damaging to one of the world’s most respected and important prizes,” according to a Google translation.

[MustBeTheBooz]

1. Everything Chump touches dies...

… and now it’s the Nobel Peace Prize.

Hey, look! I made a rhyme! 😆

[llmart]

2. The headline is misleading.

It's a meaningless gesture that carries no weight.

[littlemissmartypants]

16. That's your opinion. And you're welcome to it. But some disagree.

If the prize is reduced to a meaningless gesture then what is the prize? Is it even to be considered as a prize at all?

[Skittles]

27. neither one of them deserves the Nobel

they cheapened the award with this bullshit

[B.See]

37. Precisely. It was a shameless, and cowardly act,

no matter how she tries to spin it.

The Nobel Prize committee should RESCIND its award, just to send a message to her and anyone else who'd think to cheapen such a prestigious honour by PAWNING it away like a two bit watch.

DISGRACEFUL. The both of them.

[ALBliberal]

3. Choose better next time? A disgrace.

[Shrek]

8. The tone has certainly shifted

There was quite a bit of gushing around here when she was first announced.

It didn't last long once she started praising Trump.

[ALBliberal]

9. She comes off as a Trump tool. And there will be no good takeaway from this for her.

It degrades the award. Started when she accepted it’s only worse now.

Trump cheapens everything. It’s just sad that someone who gained lovely hard fought recognition bends the knee. And for what?

Sure will be interesting who gets it next year. And hopefully they change their selection processes.

[KS Toronado]

21. Would not surprise me if he threatened her

"Give me my Nobel you stole from me or else I'll do XXXXXXXXXX to you."

[ALBliberal]

10. Only to add? Wonder how war torn Venezuela feels about her now

And that man she backed for presidency? Because from what I see? The grifter just keeps grifting.

[Wiz Imp]

20. Gushing? I don't remember anyone gushing.

I remember lots of people saying she was terrible as well. But some people here were going to be happy with anyone as long as it wasn't Trump (even though it should have been obvious Trump never had a chance to win).

[AloeVera]

28. Not all of us were gush-prone.

We know a con and a right-wing fanatic willing to sell out her country when we see one.

[Bettie]

4. Maybe she is hoping he will

make her the governor of Venezuela or something, since he's now "president".

I hate to say it, but it sounds like she's kissing his butt in hopes of getting a personal benefit from him.

[regnaD kciN]

11. That's like saying "it sounds like water is wet"...

I’ve been saying that she should be a shoo-in for the 2026 Nobel Futile Toadying & Asskissing Prize.

[Wiz Imp]

18. Maybe? Gee, ya think?

[Bettie]

33. I personally don't know a lot about her

so, I figured I should put it in softer terms, so as not to get yelled at.

[Wiz Imp]

34. Sorry for the snark. I just couldn't help myself.

[Bettie]

35. I have been known to

Engage in snark myself! We’re all good!

[ForeGoneLegsBirne]

22. Machado Will Go Incommunicado

I fear she's WAY ahead of the game now! For years she was running... not sleeping in the same place to escape a murderous S.A. dictator. The world order was in its place. Even the powers of Europe, NATO and the Americas could only give her a gold medal to remember her by. Then Barney Fife rode into town ..took the tyrant off the scene and left the petroleum industry of the world to figure out how to dispose of 300 BILLION barrels of (substandard) oil and suddenly the lady isn't the prime target to hang from a tree? And people have a PROBLEM with this? Look folks. Fate has blessed this woman. She stood tall... accepted the fate of death .... then TRUMP came stumbling in and NOW she can disappear to Canada unless Trump follows her to Vancouver after dispatching Greenland. She dropped off the gold...loosened the noose... dropped the pretension that she is about to finish the work of Evita. And now she's going to exit stage left!!!! She got the prize .. gave Don the Con a decoration for the ballroom, not everyone in Norway is mad at her.. let her sneak out of the side exit!

[cloudbase]

5. There's more than a little bit of incredulity here in the U.S. as well.

[ForeGoneLegsBirne]

25. You Got That Right

We put a black man in a White House so all American that he wouldn't have been out of place in MAYBERRY in 1962 and to pay for it now we're being ROBBED & LED by the kind of guy you'd report to the police after he loudly knocked on your door at 3 AM! We're coming up to 18 months of incredulity but shame on U.S if we still retain the capacity for surprise!

[unblock]

6. there was a more restrained earlier response, i think from the nobel committee itself, that was more appropriate

that earlier statement was more like, our decision is ours, and what the recipient does with it is their decision and doesn't change the significance or meaning of our reward.

this is in keeping with other awards, such as super bowl rings or olympic gold medals. i can buy one or maybe even receive it as a gift if i'm lucky, well-connected, or a shakedown artist like donnie. but it doesn't mean anyone other than the original recipient earned it or merited it.

this response was great because it simply dismissed any transfer of the medal as basically irrelevant and pointless.

norwegians making a big deal of it makes it look like donnie getting someone else's trophy actually means something, which it does not.

[regnaD kciN]

12. Disagree...

Her politically fellating a wannabe dictator who feels entitled to seize whatever other land he wants casts dishonor over their choice, and thus over the awards as a whole.

[spanone]

7. They should rescind it.

[MacKasey]

13. Accepting it shows how pathetic he is

A decent human being would not accept it, and he's not decent

[ForeGoneLegsBirne]

24. Decent Human Being..Not in Don's Toolbox

Also Machado just got free of one of the world's most thankless tasks. With a little luck and somebody to make her scarce in a better environ than the jungles of South America.. perhaps our Elizabeth can escape the fate of Lamumba, Allende, or Mossadegh... the sucker still singing revolutionary songs while bombs or bullets are incoming. I'm hoping she gets a teaching job in Toronto.

[canetoad]

14. Unfortunately.....

Is it possible to revoke a Nobel Peace Prize?
https://www.nobelpeaceprize.org/articles/is-it-possible-to-revoke-a-nobel-peace-prize?embed=true

It is not possible to revoke a Nobel Peace Prize. Neither Alfred Nobel’s will nor the Statutes of the Nobel Foundation mention any such possibility.

According to the Statutes of the Nobel Foundation, § 10, “No appeals may be made against the decision of a prize-awarding body with regard to the award of a prize”.

None of the prize awarding committees in Stockholm and Oslo has ever considered to revoke a prize once awarded.

As a matter of principle, the Norwegian Nobel Committee will not comment upon what the Peace Prize Laureates may say and do after they have been awarded the prize. The Committee’s mandate is restricted to evaluate the work and efforts of the nominated candidates up to the moment it is decided who shall be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for a given year.

A Nobel Prize can neither be revoked, shared, nor transferred to others. Once the announcement has been made, the decision stands for all time.

This does not prevent the Committee from following the future endeavours of laureates closely, even though it expresses neither its concerns nor its acclamation.

[fujiyamasan]

15. Always remember

Henry Kissinger got the Nobel peace prize. So did Aung San Kyi, who turned a blind eye toward genocide in Burma. I’d question the judgment in giving Yassae Arafat one too.

They don’t have a great track record IMO.

[littlemissmartypants]

19. It's never been a noble prize. It's certainly less than that now as a result.

It's not the accolade everyone seems to think it should be.

It's just an excuse for a bunch of hoity-toity folks to dress up. Like prom but much more boring.

[Wiz Imp]

17. They need to revoke it. I know they said they would never do that, but in this case it needs to be done.

Giving it to her in the first place destroyed their credibility, but if they allow her to officially keep that honor after this, they might as well close up shop and never give out another one.

[Cha]

23. I ended up thinking at the time she got it..

that it was Wrong... I wonder if the Nobel Peace Prize Committee feels the same?

[synni]

26. The people in charge should revoke that Nobel prize

And in the future, they need to change the rules that the prize is non-transferable.

That simple action would put both her and Cheetolini in their place.

[carpetbagger]

29. They need to suspend awarding the prize.

"We are aware that person(s) awarded the Nobel Peace Prize are subject to negative actions on the parts of nations and persons contrary to the goals of the Prize. At this time, this has made the award of the Prize likely to harm fraternity between nations and other goals of the establishment of the Prize. We have thus awarded this year's Nobel Peace Prize to a person, persons, or organization, but will make a public announcement of the award and invite the awardee(s) to accept the award once we believe that this will not negatively impact the goals of world peace."

[JI7]

30. They should just end the "peace" prize.

[Hassler]

32. He took it and then showed her the door

If only there was a for her to know this would happen. Sucker!

[Rebl2]

36. Maybe the prize

committee needs to do deep dive into future recipients of the peace prize. Maybe don’t give one out every year.