One of the biggest insults in America is to accuse a politician of “stolen valour”. This usually applies to some minor exaggeration about rank or military service that emerges from forensic opposition research into a rival’s CV. It can be more blatant, as in the case of the cosplaying fake admiral, Jonathan Carley, who blagged his way into British Remembrance Day parades.
But surely the most shameless display of “stolen valour” is Donald Trump’s needy and greedy snatch of Maria Corina Machado’s Nobel Peace Prize. The Venezuelan opposition leader offered it to him and he took it from her like a Mafia don accepting an ill-gotten tribute. Any US commander-in-chief worth the name would have insisted she won it, she deserved it, and it was hers to keep.
The Nobel Committee in Norway stressed that the award cannot be “revoked, shared, or transferred to others”, but the US President disagreed.
Instead, Machado left the White House with nothing to show for her visit but a “swag bag” of party favours bearing Trump’s name. The biggest laugh is that Trump claimed on Truth Social after the laureate’s visit that “Maria presented me with her Nobel Peace Prize for the work I have done. Such a wonderful gesture of mutual respect.”
That’s after he publicly insulted Machado by calling her a “nice woman” who “doesn’t have the respect” immediately after Nicholas Maduro, the Venezuelan dictator, was seized by US forces, while praising Delcy Rodriguez, the unelected interim president, as a “terrific woman” the day before Machado arrived at the White House.
One day, her tarnished, gilt-framed prize will probably be stashed in a cupboard or shower at Mar-a-Lago, along with the North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un’s letters with Trump. Or perhaps it will adorn the future Trump Presidential Library, with the promised Qatari “Air Force One” jet parked outside. For Qatar is already raking in the rewards for stroking Trump’s vanity – the first $500m (£374m) raised from America’s sale of Venezuela’s oil is being held in a Qatari bank, its destination uncertain.
We have seen this degrading spectacle before. One of the first notable acts of his second term as US President was to humiliate Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House last February for daring to defend Ukraine against Russia. Trump’s first year back in office (the anniversary is on Tuesday) is now ending with Machado’s hard-won prize as his personal trinket.
Woundingly for Machado, his graceless behaviour has allowed Rodriguez to portray her brave rival as weak. “If one day, as acting president, I have to go to Washington, I will do so with my head held high, not on my knees,” said the former Maduro crony turned Trump stooge.
I would like to see Trump experience a fraction of the ordeals Machado, 58, has faced to win her Nobel. As a member of Venezuela’s National Assembly for three years, she had the guts to tell Hugo Chavez, Maduro’s legendary leftist predecessor, that “expropriation is stealing” in 2012.
Just over a decade later, she revived the opposition, delivering speeches to wild applause on the move from trucks and on rooftops. When Maduro banned her from standing for president in 2024 on trumped-up charges, Edmundo Gonzalez stood in her place and almost certainly won (Maduro claimed victory). She was forced into hiding.
Reaching Norway to claim her prize involved a daring cloak-and-dagger operation. According to the Wall Street Journal, she slipped away from a safe house in a Caracas suburb and passed through 10 military checkpoints before reaching the coast, boarding a wooden skiff at 5am and sneaking across the sea to the Caribbean island of Curaçao.
This was the stuff of heroes. But then, accepting the prize, she meekly dedicated it to “President Trump for his decisive support of our cause”. The Nobel prize committee thought it was clever to hand the 2025 prize to a right-wing champion of freedom, but still managed to offend the world’s biggest baby.
Machado should have known that this US President bullies and despises those who crave his support. Think of the stream of visitors to Mar-a-Lago to kiss Trump’s ring who have been cast from his orbit, including former Maga-maven Marjorie Taylor-Greene, who quit Congress this month.
Then, of course, there are America’s allies, notably the Danes and Canadians, whose territory Trump covets. And watch out, US Vice President JD Vance, if Trump decides in 2028 to make good on his “joke” to Reuters about the midterms this week that “we shouldn’t even have an election” because he has accomplished so much.
Recollections may vary about Trump’s alleged triumphs. A CNN/SRSS poll on Friday found that 58 per cent of Americans regard his first year as US President as a failure, with 61 per cent disapproving of the way he has handled his job. Of these, 35 per cent complained about his personal behaviour, such as bullying and being disrespectful.
The sad truth is that Trump could have legitimately won the Nobel Peace Prize had he used his talent for bullying against Russian leader Vladimir Putin to bring peace to Ukraine. He will never deserve one as long as the Prize for Stolen Valour hangs on his wall.
Sarah Baxter is director of the Marie Colvin Center for International Reporting
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