Nobel Foundation Issues Official Decree: Peace Prize Status ‘Inseparable’ Following Machado-Trump Medal Handover
Byline: PingTV News Desk
Dateline: OSLO, Norway — January 18, 2026
The Nobel Foundation has issued a decisive legal clarification asserting that the Nobel Prize is a permanent, non-transferable honor that cannot be reassigned. The statement, released Sunday, comes as a direct response to the international debate sparked by 2025 Peace Laureate María Corina Machado presenting her gold medal to U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House.
In an official communique titled “Statement on the Administration of Nobel Prizes,” the Foundation emphasized its mandate to safeguard the dignity of the award. Citing the 1895 will of Alfred Nobel, the body clarified that the honor resides with the individual designated by the committee and cannot be shifted, even through a symbolic gift.
“The prizes shall be awarded to those who have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind,” the Foundation stated. “A prize can therefore not, even symbolically, be passed on or further distributed.”
The controversy began on January 15, 2026, during a high-stakes meeting in the Oval Office. Machado, the Venezuelan opposition leader who received the 2025 Peace Prize for her “bravery in the face of tyranny,” gifted her 18-carat gold medal to President Trump. She described the gesture as a “return of the medal of liberty,” drawing a historical parallel to the Marquis de Lafayette.
President Trump later celebrated the exchange on social media, stating that Machado had “presented me with her Nobel Peace Prize.” This led to widespread public confusion over whether the U.S. President had effectively become a co-laureate or successor to the 2025 honor.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee clarified that while a laureate is the legal owner of the physical medal and is “free to keep, give away, sell, or donate” the object, these actions have no impact on the official record of the prize.
“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,” the award body noted. The Committee further confirmed that the Statutes of the Nobel Foundation contain no provision for revoking or transferring a prize once the announcement has been made.
The Foundation’s intervention marks a rare public rebuke of the political utilization of Nobel symbols. For PingTV, this development clarifies that while the physical gold may now reside in the White House, the historical and legal title of the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize remains exclusively with María Corina Machado.
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