Maria Corina Machado, Venezuelan opposition leader and full-time bearer of hope, walked into the White House and walked out lighter by exactly one Nobel Peace Prize medal.
Donald Trump, President of the United States and part-time redeemer of civilisation, accepted it with the solemnity usually reserved for golf trophies and election recounts.
Trump, never one to underplay humility, promptly informed the world that ‘Maria presented me with her Nobel Peace Prize for the work I have done’, not the work she thinks he has done. The Nobel Committee was clearly late to the party.
The medal, it turns out, will be kept. This is important, and the White House confirmed it, lest anyone imagine it was a temporary loan or a photo-op with return conditions.
Peace prize, transferable
The Nobel Peace Prize, once awarded for stopping wars and ending apartheid, has now entered the secondary market. It is transferable, giftable, and possibly redeemable for loyalty points.
Machado said the gift recognised Trump’s ‘commitment to the freedom of the Venezuelan people’. This is fascinating because Venezuela is still not free, and its people are still not free, but in the modern world, intent counts more than outcome, and optics matter more than oxygen.
Trump, for his part, called it a ‘wonderful gesture of mutual respect’. Mutuality is doing heavy lifting here, because one person gave away a Nobel medal and the other kept it.
Nobel committee, please note
Somewhere in Oslo, a committee member must have choked on morning coffee while scanning the headlines. The Nobel Peace Prize is not supposed to work like a relay baton, where you run your leg and hand it over to the loudest man in the stadium.
But Trump has form. If there is a medal in the room, it eventually makes its way towards him. He has been nominated for the Nobel multiple times, usually by politicians whose definition of peace involves exporting terrorism. Accepting a Nobel medal without the inconvenience of winning it is therefore an efficiency upgrade.
One suspects Trump now believes why wait for Oslo when Caracas can courier.
Venezuela, stage left
Lost in the applause is Venezuela itself, a country in economic ruins, ruled by a regime that does not care for medals, gestures, or mutual respect. Machado’s move was not about peace; it was about access.
If giving away a Nobel medal buys you five minutes of presidential attention, it is a bargain. Tomorrow, perhaps, someone will gift Trump the Magna Carta, a signed copy, slightly used.
And the punchline writes itself
Trump did not say he would return the medal. He did not say he would dedicate it to peace. He said he would keep it which, finally settles the debate about the Nobel Peace Prize. It is no longer awarded for stopping wars. It is awarded for stopping by.
Nice article. You have put it well that it has entered the secondary market. Soon there can be a stock market to trade these trophies.