Trump gets his hands on Nobel peace prize – The Latest

0:00This is The Guardian.

0:16The gleeful grin on Trump's face, I mean, it's just ridiculous. This is not his Nobel Peace Prize. I presented the President of the United States the medal of the Nobel Peace Prize. Clearly there's a pattern of world leaders giving Trump shiny things in order to curry his favor. You know, when you put out eight wars, in theory you should get one for each war. He sort of coerced it out of somebody. He's wanted one of these for ages, really. Donald Trump has finally got his mitts onto a Nobel Peace Prize, but is it his to keep? From the Guardian's Today in Focus, this is The Latest with me, Lucy Hart.

0:59I'm joined by Chris Michael, the Guardian's US breaking news editor based in London. Hi, Chris. Hi, Lucy. So this was quite an extraordinary spectacle, wasn't it? It was Maria Machado, the exiled opposition leader of Venezuela, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in October last year, handing her medal over to the US president in Washington. Quite the gesture. Just an extraordinary photo and a gleeful grin on Trump's face. I mean, it's just ridiculous. This is not his Nobel Peace Prize. It's won by somebody else, but he sort of coerced it out of somebody. He's wanted one of these for ages, really, since his first term.

1:41He's claimed that he has ended eight wars. He's actually said that you should get a peace prize for each war you end. And most of the conflicts are ongoing or frozen in a sort of cold state. It's ridiculous, but that hasn't stopped him just wanting this probably out of jealousy because Barack Obama won one. got FIFA to give him a peace prize quite recently, which was pretty ridiculous. John Bolton, his former security advisor, was saying he was really worried that Trump might just take Teddy Roosevelt's Nobel Prize, which is hanging up in the White House. He did sort of pay lip service to the fact that it's not his by saying it's so nice of her to give me her award.

2:27But, you know, I mean, the look on his face was the cat who got the cream. Yeah. And to be clear, Maria Machado won the Nobel Peace Prize in October last year. It was awarded to her for her efforts to protect democracy in Venezuela. She is the opposition leader living in exile. It's widely believed that she would have won last year's elections in the country had she not been barred from running. The Nobel Peace Prize Committee have come out in response to what happened yesterday and said, you know, like the physical medal can change hands, but the award itself cannot be transferred. Yeah, it's not transferable.

3:03I mean, Trump didn't do what she did. She's been in Venezuela for years, decades, really fighting for democracy. I mean, in some ways she was a bit of a strange choice just because she is so conservative. I mean, she's kind of quite allied with the Trump administration and with sort of right-wing forces in the U.S. But nevertheless, she was a staunch advocate for democracy. As you say, she tried to run against Maduro in 2024, was banned from running, ended up backing Nbundo Gonzalez, as the candidate who everybody seems to agree did win the election, but then Maduro refused to give up power, crack down on the protests, killed dozens of people, and Machado went into hiding and had been in hiding ever since.

3:52So I mean, you know, it's interesting, because she clearly had designs on, you know, taking over when Maduro was kicked out, but Trump had other ideas. Yeah, and I mean, on that, it was widely expected at the time when the US carried out these strikes on Venezuela and then the extraordinary capture of the former president, Nicolas Maduro, that Machado would win the Trump administration's backing to take over as a future leader. But that hasn't happened. And that explains why she has traveled to Washington for these talks and given Trump something that he's coveted so much. It reminds me a bit of when Keir Starmer gave Trump in front of the world's press a state invitation directly handwritten by the king, much to his delight.

4:42Keir Starmer obviously with his own agenda for Ukraine. And clearly there's a pattern of world leaders giving Trump shiny things in order to curry his favor and get him to do things that they would like him to do. Yeah, they call it gold diplomacy, right? Tim Cook going to the Oval Office and giving him a shiny gold object. And we know Trump loves shiny gold things. So, yeah, it definitely was an attempt by her to curry favor. I think there was sort of thinking that the move on Venezuela would be regime change. But it hasn't been that. It has been simply to remove Maduro and keep his regime in power.

5:20And his vice president, Delce Rodriguez, is sort of acting ruler of the country. and Machado's on the outside looking in. Trump said that he thought that she didn't have the respect that was needed and seemed to kind of throw her under the bus in this remarkable way. So rather than kind of anointing her and the Democratic opposition, he's sort of allowed the existing regime to stay in place as long as they give him the oil. That seems to be the kind of quid pro quo. And so Machado had to do something. We know that Trump was infuriated that A, she won it, and then B, that she didn't immediately give it to him.

5:59I mean, he's said as much. And so this is kind of her maybe getting back into the good graces so that if there are elections in the future and she does win them, then she'll have an ally in Trump and not an enemy. Yeah, but the White House giving no indication of when it expects that Venezuela might hold democratic elections. I mean, talk to me about the role of Dulce Rodriguez in all of this. I mean, you've said that she has won the favour of Donald Trump in the days since the strikes on Venezuela and the capture of Maduro. As you say, Machado has been described as having, to quote, not enough support.

6:34And Trump has turned its attention to Rodriguez. Well, I think in one sense, it's just a less messy operation, right? I mean, the Venezuela strikes were incredibly popular with Trump's base, his supporters, because they were this sort of, you know, shock and awe military incursion that went really well. It's kind of like a film and they kidnapped him. But there were no American boots on the ground. And, you know, having campaigned endlessly on not starting any wars, that seems to be Trump's way around this. He can bomb places as long as he doesn't put American soldiers anywhere. And so really, it was the easiest method was to just keep the regime in place, threaten them, make sure that they knew that they could also be captured and that Delce Rodriguez, you know, faced the same sort of threat that Maduro did, being sort of yanked out of her bedroom in the middle of the night.

7:26It seems to have been a decision that as long as they give up on this idea of a purely nationalized oil industry, so as long as they'll open that up and develop it with American companies, then Trump seems perfectly content to let the, you know, existing authoritarian anti-democratic regime stay in power. Yeah, which is a difficult balance for Rodriguez, isn't it? Who's having to keep Maduro loyalists happy, but also a demanding US president who has such clear intent in the country that she is now an interim leader for. Yeah, exactly. I mean, you know, she was very much part of the, you know, Chavista regime.

8:07They are a sort of leftist movement, quite closely allied with Cuba. It's sort of hard to square that with all of a sudden cozying up to the Americans who, you know, are out to topple Cuba as well. Well, Chris, thank you so much. Thanks for having me.

8:26thanks for listening to this episode of the latest the new evening edition of today in focus we'll be bringing you what you need to know about the story everyone's talking about in around 10 minutes every weekday evening today in focus we'll be back with you on monday morning and we'll be back with you on monday night have a lovely weekend this episode was presented by me lucy hoff the producer was brianie moore the lead producer was zoe hitch

8:53This is The Guardian.