News donald trump Nobel peace prize

Donald Trump and a notorious Nazi propagandist are the only ones to accept a second-hand Nobel Prize, and the rest is history

Michael White. Updated January 17th, 2026

Donald Trump likes to think he’s up there with some of the most famous names in world history.

It’s one of the many, deeply insecure and narcissistic reasons he’s so obsessed with winning the Nobel Peace Prize.

Well, with yesterday’s extraordinary spectacle of Venezuelan Nobel Peace laureate, María Corina Machado, giving Trump her Nobel medal, the US president may have just gotten his wish. Just not in the way he expected.

It turns out that only two people have ever accepted a second-hand Nobel Prize.

There’s Trump.

And, erm, Joseph Goebbels, notorious Nazi propagandist and one of Hitler’s most devoted followers. Goebbels was sent the prize by 1920 Norwegian Literature laureate, Knut Hamsun. And old Nazi Knut, you might say.

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Euronews and Reuters confirmed the historical fact in their reporting. So, while other Nobel laureates have sold their medals or donated to causes/museums etc, only two people have ever been sent and accepted Nobel prizes. Of course, as the Nobel committee has had to make clear more than once, Nobel Prize honours are non-transferrable.

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What great company he’s in, eh?!

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Source: Twitter/X/ryangrim