Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado says she presented her Nobel Peace Prize to Donald Trump when the pair met Thursday for a closed-door lunch.
“I think today is a historic day for us Venezuelans,” she told reporters after the meeting, which marks the first time the pair have met in-person.
In a Truth Social post Thursday night, Trump said it was a “great honor” to meet Machado, calling her a “wonderful woman who has been through so much.”
Trump confirmed that Machado presented him with the Nobel Prize, which he has long coveted, “for the work I have done.” He thanked the opposition leader and called it “such a wonderful gesture of mutual respect.”
The meeting comes less than two weeks after U.S. military forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife at their home in Caracas and removed them to face trial in New York.
Vice President Delcy Rodriguez has since been sworn in as the interim president, and Trump says that he is dealing with her, rather than Machado.
Before Thursday’s meeting, Machado praised Trump publicly and had announced the intention to share her award with him, which she won for her efforts to turn Venezuela into a democracy, in the hopes of landing on the U.S. president’s good side.
However, the organizers of the Nobel Prize previously told Machado that the award “cannot be revoked, shared or transferred” and that the decision to award the medal is “final and stands for all time.”
Machado’s win in October was reported to have sparked resentment for Trump, who has long expressed interest in winning the prize and has at times linked it to diplomatic achievements, even though she has been effusive in her support and dedicated her win to him.
Trump said earlier this month that being presented with the prize “would be a great honor.”
“Well, I understand she's coming in next week sometime, and I look forward to saying hello to her, and I've heard that she wants to do that. That would be a great honor,” he told Fox News’ Sean Hannity.
“I did put out eight wars, eight and a quarter because, you know, Thailand and Cambodia started going at it again.”
However, the president has previously said Machado does not have the support to win an election in Venezuela, should one take place.
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