LET us make no mistake. Donald Trump has not received the Nobel Peace Prize. He has simply acquired the medal. This is akin to holding a friend’s Oscar during a selfie and then captioning it ‘great night’.

The distinction, however, has never really troubled the American president, who had campaigned for the honour for years. He had listed his achievements numerous times, compared himself favourably to past winners and expressed bafflement that the committee kept missing the point — him. That pursuit was not subtle.

President Trump spoke of the Nobel as something he had earned but been unfairly denied, a prize that history had misplaced. The grievance lingered, resurfacing whenever foreign policy or legacy came up.

What irony then, that María Corina Machado, the actual Nobel laureate, simply handed the medal to him. With the trophy now sitting on Mr Trump’s desk, destiny must feel restored.

The custodians of the prize were quick to clarify matters. The Norwegian Nobel Institute reminded everyone that the Nobel cannot be transferred, shared or quietly passed along. The medal may move. The honour stays put.

The natural question that arises then is, why hand over the cherished prize at all? For Ms Machado, the gesture is less about personal generosity than political leverage.

Post-Maduro, Venezuela’s future is being argued in Washington, and she arrived with an unusually shiny lobbying tool. It cost her nothing, and flattered him enormously, a rare bargain in diplomacy.

Mr Trump has chosen to keep the medal, and although it is a symbolic prize, it implies responsibility. That means calm, restraint, and thinking before tweeting.

No one is updating the laureates’ list. No Oslo speech is pending. Still, now that peace is sitting on his desk, expectations may quietly follow. After all, it would be awkward to own the medal and then start a fight with it.

Published in Dawn, January 18th, 2026