Venezuelan Opposition Leader Gifts President Trump Her Nobel Peace Prize

WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Donald Trump met with Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado in the Oval Office at the White House on Thursday. During the meeting, she gave the President her Nobel Peace Prize.

After the meeting, Machado said that she was "absolutely grateful" to President Trump for his decision to capture and extract disgraced dictator Nicolas Maduro. President Trump called the moment a "wonderful gesture of mutual respect."

Machado told reporters as she exited the White House that she presented Trump with her prize and reflected on the historical ties between the United States and Venezuela.

She said she recounted a moment in history when the Marquis de Lafayette presented Venezuelan independence leader Simón Bolívar with a medal bearing the image of George Washington:

"I told him this. Listen to this. 200 years ago, General Lafayette gave Simon Bolivar a medal with George Washington's face on it. Bolivar, since then, kept that medal for the rest of his life," Machado said to the press.

"Actually, when you see his portraits, you can see the medal there. And it was given by General Lafayette as a sign of the brotherhood between the United States, the people of United States, and the people of Venezuela in their fight for freedom against tyranny. And 200 years in history, the people of Bolivar are giving back to the heir of Washington, a medal, in this case a medal of a Nobel Peace Prize, and a recognition for his unique commitment with our freedom," she said.

She refers to Simon Bolivar, who liberated Venezuela and several other Latin American countries from Spanish rule in the 1800s. Marquis de Lafayette was a French national who volunteered for the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. He eventually rose to be one of George Washington's most trusted generals and friends.