The chances of me winning the Nobel Peace Prize are slim and diminishing by the day. It would be hard to point to anything I’ve done to promote global harmony. I’m not proud of myself. Yet, who knows? Given the right circumstances I might step up to the plate. I’ve tried to teach my children that kindness is a cardinal virtue, though they may grade me no higher than a B. I keep our bird feeders replenished. I’m nice to our dog except when she jumps on guests or shakes her head so furiously that her slobber lands on the ceiling. I’m not making that up. You could check.
Nonetheless, I was upset when Venezuelan opposition leader and 2025 Nobel Peace Prize recipient Maria Corina Machado gave President Trump her medal. I have all sorts of issues with the gesture, starting with my belief that our commander-in-chief isn’t an obvious choice. Just to boost his chances he might want to stop threatening to invade our neighbors and revisit his questionable decision to rename the Department of Defense the Department of War. That was sort of a tell that his heart isn’t in the pacifism business.
Yet my objections to Ms. Machado’s sycophancy are slightly more idiosyncratic. I mean, I can understand her desire to nudge the American president after he left Venezuela’s dictatorship in place. If our goal in bringing former president Nicholas Maduro to justice was to promote democracy — if it wasn’t just about the oil — then Machado, who would have won Venezuela’s presidential election if she hadn’t been disqualified and her surrogate’s victory ignored by the regime, appears to be the people’s choice.
But did she really have to give Trump her gold medal in a gold frame expressing her gratitude for his “Extraordinary Leadership in Promoting Peace Through Strength, Advancing Diplomacy, and Defending Liberty and Prosperity?” That’s the sort of sentiment you include when thanking Superman for saving Planet Earth from an asteroid.
Couldn’t she have just shown the medal to him or given him a replica? I wouldn’t even have let him hold it in his hand. Chances are he’d have slipped it into his pocket. I once showed a doctor of mine, a professional tennis fan, a cap from an exhibition match I attended at Madison Square Garden between Roger Federer and Pete Sampras. Federer won but you were reminded why Sampras was the dominant player of his era. The physician thanked me and shoved the cap in his desk. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that I hadn’t intended it as a gift. But once it’s gone there’s no getting it back. Fortunately, I have other caps from the match.
And what did Ms. Machado get in return for her generosity? Certainly no commitment to install her political party as the duly elected representatives of the Venezuelan people. And as the Nobel committee clarified just because someone new owns the actual medal doesn’t make him the winner.
I’ve won precious few awards in my own life. Still, it’s unlikely I’d relinquish them, especially if they were made of gold, given the metal’s skyrocketing value. Russian journalist and 2021 Peace Prize recipient Dmitry Muratov sold his for more than one hundred millions bucks. The money went to a good cause — to aid Ukrainian refugee children. The sale eclipsed the previous record when James Watson, who shared the discovery of the structure of DNA, auctioned his medal in 2014 for $4.6 million. That buys a lot of groceries.
And did Ms. Machado really need to go to the added expense of mounting and framing the medal? Knowing Trump he’d have been happier if he could have worn it around his neck and let people ogle it. I once interviewed him in his Trump Tower office and I can tell you the man is proud of his souvenirs. They’re all over the place. He loves showing them off.
Ms. Machado is undoubtedly a better person than I am. I doubt I’d have had the courage to defy a dictatorship to free my people and then have to go into hiding for fear of being killed. Nonetheless, it would keep me up at night thinking that I’d given away the world’s most prestigious award. And in exchange for what? A maroon Trump branded shopping bag filled with swag. I haven’t found any accounts of its contents but the swag bags from Trump’s second inaugural included a Trump/Vance medal, a large red leather journal embossed with the Presidential Seal, and a matching coin holder.
Who uses coin holders these days? Who even uses coins? I hardly use cash. I recently found sterling silver money clips belonging to my father and grandfather. I thought better of polishing them. They’ve vestiges of an earlier age.
I looked into the Nobel Committee’s rules — by that I mean I performed a Google search — and it appears unlikely the committee will mint Ms. Machado a replacement medal. On the rare occasions when it does so, typically at the owner’s expense, that’s because the medallion has been lost or stolen.
I understand it’s hard to say no to an American president. But if I ever run into Donald Trump again I won’t be bearing gifts that are meaningful to me. Maybe I’d give him one of those money clips. Certainly not both of them.
Ralph Gardner Junior is a journalist who divides his time between New York City and Columbia County. More of his work can be found in the Berkshire Eagle and on Substack.
The views expressed by commentators are solely those of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect the views of this station or its management.
