Norway Stunned As Trump, Hungry For It, Revels In Machado Leaving Her Peace Nobel In The White House
India-West News Desk
WASHINGTON, DC – Norway reacted with incredulity and embarrassment to the gesture, with political leaders and scholars saying it demeaned one of the world’s most respected honors. The Norwegian Nobel Committee has long maintained that once awarded, the Nobel Peace Prize cannot be transferred, shared, or revoked, a rule underscored after Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado presented her medal to US President Donald Trump during a White House meeting.
Trump described her leaving behind the award in the White House as a “great honor,” saying Machado had given him her Nobel Peace Prize “for the work I have done,” and thanking her publicly for what he called a “wonderful gesture of mutual respect.” The closed door meeting over lunch marked their first in-person encounter.
Machado later framed the act as symbolic, telling reporters she was invoking “shared democratic traditions” between Venezuela and the United States.
By leaving the medal behind, appeared to be seeking something she considers even more valuable: US political backing as she positions herself for a post Nicolás Maduro future.
It laid bare the hunger on both sides. One leader is openly eager for the global validation of a Nobel Prize, while the other is seeking to come to power.
The Nobel Peace Center said on social media that “a medal can change owners, but the title of a Nobel peace prize laureate cannot.”It clarified that the prize remains with the recipient alone and cannot be passed on under any circumstances. That clarification did little to soften reactions in Norway, where lawmakers expressed shock and dismay.
A former state secretary in the foreign affairs ministry termed it as “disrespectful.”
A Labour Party lawmaker went further, calling the episode online as “incredibly embarrassing and damaging to one of the world’s most respected and important prizes.”
The leader of the Centre party publicly said, “Whoever has received the prize has received the prize. The fact that Trump accepted the medal says something about him as a type of person: a classic showoff who wants to adorn himself with other people’s honours and work.”
iyer
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Beyond belief, unreal.
January 16, 2026Jeet Gupta
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I think the statement from the Centre Party that “The fact that Trump accepted the medal says something about him as a type of person: a classic showoff who wants to adorn himself with other people’s honours and work.”” says everything about Trump who is hungary to be called best at everything whereas his performace is that of a person who is below average, almost at the level of worse. This is all evidenced by his behavior in every aspect of his Presidency.
January 16, 2026Jon Hochschartner
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The next Democratic president will need to ruthlessly prosecute the fascist criminality of President Donald Trump’s administration. Any progressive candidate who isn’t prepared to do that should do us all a favor and not bother running in the 2028 primary. I will be assessing the Democratic field on a number of important issues. However, the politician who convincingly pledges to lock up as many officials in Trump’s White House as possible will go a long way to earning my vote.
As a millennial, Republicans have been moving further and further right and flouting the law with increasing frequency for my entire life. American conservatives have learned there is quite literally nothing they could do that would make establishment Democrats speak above an inside voice, let alone hold Republican malfeasance to account. Now our democracy is at the brink. The Trump administration is occupying liberal cities and the leaders of the so-called opposition party are nowhere to be found.
Any Democratic presidential candidate who suggests they might ‘turn the page’ or ‘look forward, not backward’ when it comes to fascist crimes should be laughed off the debate stage. We’ve seen that approach before, most recently under President Joe Biden’s administration. Of course, by not vigorously prosecuting Trump and his goons, Biden allowed them to return to power and wreak the havoc we’re experiencing now. We will be lucky to escape the current authoritarian moment.
There are a number of ways Democrats might seek to ensure this crisis doesn’t happen again. For instance, they should add liberal-leaning states to the union, like Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia. Similarly, they must expand the Supreme Court, which will remain hopelessly partisan and corrupt absent intervention. However, there can be no serious effort to beat back the fascist threat that doesn’t include putting the authoritarian lawbreakers now occupying the White House behind bars.
This is regrettable. I don’t like to wish prison on anyone. That said, people like Trump, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, and so many others have made clear they won’t respond to reason or moral appeals. They can’t be shamed. They will never stop. They can only be stopped. It’s up to the next Democratic president to communicate with them in the only language they understand, which is raw power.
The anti-fascist coalition has a wide variety of policy goals. For example, as an animal activist, I want to see a massive infusion of federal funding into cultivated-meat research. The new protein is grown from livestock cells, without slaughter. I view accelerating the scientific development of cultivated meat as the most promising means of reducing nonhuman suffering and premature death. However, none of our aims can be achieved under the right-wing dictatorship Trump is trying to build.
Serious Democratic presidential candidates should be competing over who has the best plan to put the largest number of criminal fascist leaders in prison. Trump will likely pardon himself and everyone in his orbit before leaving office. I’m not a lawyer, so I can’t speak to the best way to work around this. Maybe these pardons could be ignored. Perhaps Trump and his allies could be prosecuted at the state level or turned over to the International Criminal Court. But they must face justice.
Jon Hochschartner, author
January 20, 2026Connecticut