It’s fitting that a man who never came by anything through hard work, honesty or through the strength of his character got a Nobel Peace Prize secondhand from a woman who actually put her life and freedom at risk to earn it. Whatever one’s thoughts on Maria Corina Machado’s politics, one cannot help but feel deep sadness at the sight of the woman (who, until very recently, was a political fugitive in her home country of Venezuela) handing over her hard-won prize to Donald Trump, a man who has made it clear he has little interest in Venezuela except for its vast fossil fuel riches. Conversely, it’s impossible to feel anything than the most profound disgust for the president, grinning like the Cheshire Cat, as he accepts possibly the most valuable consolation prize ever. The revulsion is completely one-sided, though: Donald Trump has formed his entire public image around polishing his own turds and declaring them art to make himself appear more than what he truly is. There is no other way to describe his long history of vanity projects, many (perhaps most) of which ended up as financially bankrupt as their founder is morally. Yet, somehow, each disaster is spun as a great success or, at the very least, a victim of people too jealous, threatened or stupid to fully appreciate the genius’ brainchild. He has made failing forward and upward his trademark move

Like a storybook prince, the president practically squeals with delight when he gets shiny toys from people he imagines are his intellectual, influential or material peers. The ruler of an oil-rich Middle East country gifted him a hand-me-down jet and he paraded it about like a child showing off a rare Pokémon card. I do not pretend to understand why Machado decided to give away her medal — maybe it was in an effort to kiss the pinky ring of the man who’s playing with the future of her country; perhaps it was an odd attempt at establishing herself as a viable post-Maduro leader; it might have even been something completely non-political, a genuine personal present. What is baffling, however, is why Machado would have gone to the extraordinary trouble and risk of emerging from hiding to collect the award in Oslo only to turn around a few weeks later and regift it to a man who has had many opportunities to make meaningful contributions to peace but has largely sat on his hands and lusted for the prize instead.

In some respects, only the personal gesture notion makes any real sense. Neither Trump nor anyone connected to him seems at all interested in including Machado in whatever will pass as a transition of power, so even such a shiny offering as a Nobel Peace Prize is unlikely to bring her into the fold. Machado spoke of some symbolism rooted in the shared revolutionary history of Venezuela and the United States, but, as someone sidelined by Washington and still very much persona non grata among the ruling authorities in Caracas, the symbolism is hollow at best and probably lost on the president. That leaves us with a completely selfish action on the giver’s part and, unsurprisingly, a completely selfish acceptance on the part of the receiver. It does not take much effort to imagine Donald Trump proudly displaying ‘his’ Nobel Prize in the Oval Office, a treasure he is sure to wave under Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s nose if the Ukrainian president returns to the White House — a meaningless award for a peace the American president boasted he’d broker but has somehow yet to materialize. Whether it’s hubris, delusion or just a pathological need for more stuff, the president cares little what the huddled masses think of his latest acquisition as the only important thing is that it means he has one more gold-clad souvenir of his neo-imperialist wet dream.