*Sort of.

As a portrait of George Washington looked on benevolently, President Donald Trump was presented with the Nobel Peace Prize this week…by its 2025 recipient, Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado.

“Venezuelan Nobel Peace Prize winner presents her medal to Trump,” reported Max Matza for the BBC on Friday. “Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado has given her Nobel Peace Prize medal to President Donald Trump during a meeting at the White House, saying it was a recognition of his commitment to her country’s freedom.”

That he was presented the award by its 2025 recipient seemed to please the President even more than if he’d been awarded the prize by the committee.

“It was my Great Honor to meet María Corina Machado, of Venezuela, today,” a delighted President Trump posted to Truth Social on January 15, 2026. “She is a wonderful woman who has been through so much. María presented me with her Nobel Peace Prize for the work I have done. Such a wonderful gesture of mutual respect. Thank you María!”

It does have a certain irony, even Trump’s critics must admit.

It’s no secret that President Trump covets the prize. Media outlets have been attempting, with mixed results, to shame Mr. Trump for openly pursuing it.

That’s not quite the Trump-own media outlets think it is, but when has that deterred them?

On one hand they do a good job. Affluent neighborhoods all over the country are like graveyards of progressive outrage. A forlorn Canadian flag still hangs on one door, a faded Ukraine flag on another; placards advocate for a “full ceasefire in Gaza right now!”

Can’t blame them: It’s hard to keep track. 

The Trump-Canada tariff dispute — which resolved in favor of Trump and the United States after Canada capitulated — seems like an eternity ago, at least 50 hyperbolic, breathless news cycles have passed since then.

Democracy has died at least a dozen times by now.

On the other hand, progressive media outlets, while they do a good job mobilizing progressives for The Next Big Thing, have alienated the majority of their audiences and are trading on a similar fraction of the trust they once enjoyed from the American public at large.

And Donald Trump is the president.

Again.

So media hated of Donald Trump hasn’t amounted to much, electorally speaking. But that hasn’t dimmed the media’s white hot hatred of Donald Trump one lumen.

It is a hatred enthusiastically shared by the Nobel Peace Prize committee. Never a more progressive bunch was ever assembled before heaven and earth, with the possible exception of SAG.

The Nobel prize committee will never, ever, ever give a peace prize to Donald Trump, no matter how many peace treaties and ceasefires he negotiates. Full stop.

The Nobel committee was incensed that Donald Trump was even allowed to touch one of their prizes. If you don’t already hate Donald Trump, it sounds silly.

“Machado presents her Nobel award to Trump, prompting incredulity in Norway,” reported Sam Meredith for CNBC on January 16, 2026.

“This is incredibly embarrassing and damaging to one of the world’s most respected and important prizes,” said one of the committee members in a social media post. 

“It’s completely unheard of,” huffed another in outrage, adding “disrespectful” and “pathetic” for good measure.

“Even though Trump has now received the medal, it does not mean that he has received the Peace Prize,” said a third official.

It would make a great deal more sense to hear officials from the Nobel Peace Prize committee express delight and admiration that a prize winner would share the prize with someone else in the spirit of cooperation and friendship for peace. To say nothing of sharing it with the president of a wealthy, powerful nation like the United States. To say nothing of sharing it with the Commander in Chief of that nation’s vast military arsenal. But perhaps a misunderstanding of the purpose of the prize is to blame.

Seems like it doesn’t have much to do with promoting peace and everything to do with hurting a popular political opponent and the populist agenda.

(Contributing writer, Brooke Bell)