‘Ended 8 Wars’: Trump Justifies Accepting Machado’s Nobel Peace Prize

Last Updated:January 17, 2026, 11:07 IST

Trump said Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had personally thanked him for his role in de-escalating tensions.

Trump repeated the claim of ending India-Pakistan conflict | File Image

US President Donald Trump defended his decision to accept Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado’s Nobel Peace Prize medal, saying it was offered to him in recognition of what he described as his role in ending multiple global conflicts.

Machado, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, presented her medal to Trump during a meeting at the White House on Thursday. Trump praised her as a “wonderful woman” and described the gesture as “a wonderful act of mutual respect.”

When questioned about accepting someone else’s Nobel Prize and what he planned to do with it, Trump said the decision was straightforward.

“She offered it to me. I thought it was very nice,” he said, adding that Machado told him he had “ended eight wars” and that “nobody deserves this prize more than you do.” Trump later referred to her as a “very fine woman.”

The gesture comes as Trump continues to highlight his foreign policy record and renews his pitch for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Over the weekend, he once again claimed credit for preventing a potential war between India and Pakistan, saying his intervention helped defuse tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.

Speaking at an event marking the renaming of Southern Boulevard to Donald J. Trump Boulevard, Trump said Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had personally thanked him for helping avert conflict.

“In a year, we made eight peace deals. We stopped India and Pakistan from fighting, two nuclear nations,” Trump said, claiming millions of lives were saved.

Trump has repeated similar assertions since May last year, maintaining that his diplomatic pressure played a decisive role in easing India-Pakistan tensions.

However, India has consistently rejected claims of any third-party mediation.

New Delhi has said the de-escalation followed direct military-level talks after India launched Operation Sindoor in response to the April 2025 Pahalgam terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir that killed 26 people.

According to officials, it was Pakistan’s Director General of Military Operations who contacted his Indian counterpart on May 10 to seek a ceasefire, which was then agreed upon.

Meanwhile, the Norwegian Nobel Committee and the Norwegian Nobel Institute have clarified that Nobel Prizes cannot be transferred, shared or reassigned.

While a laureate may choose to give away the physical medal, the honour itself remains permanently with the original recipient.

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