Flipping Properties
Swapping a prize for a presidency
Yesterday, Maria Corina Machado showed the world how a hunger for power drives her. Like with so many aspiring, tin pot, South American dictators, she will eventually end up dead because of it. Like with so many Americans, she will find that capitulating to Trump’s wishes gets her far less than she gave.
The medal is in a golden frame with a background chosen to match the Oval Office drapery used to obscure the Declaration of Independence. Trump has always had a penchant for interior design, and I am sure he appreciated the care that went into refurbishing the Nobel Committee’s award.
As a guy who imagined his career was in real estate (the majority of his business ventures were not in real estate), Trump understands what goes into a successful property flip—and he knows how to take advantage of a seller.
The text, from the “award”:
To President Donald J. Trump
In Gratitude for Your Extraordinary Leadership in Promoting Peace Through Strength, Advancing Diplomacy, and Defending Liberty and Prosperity.
Presented as a Personal Symbol of Gratitude on behalf of the Venezuelan People in Recognition of President Trump’s Principled and Decisive Action to Secure a Free Venezuela.
The Courage of America, and it’s President Donald J. Trump will Never be Forgotten by the Venezuelan people.
Successful property-flipping involves identifying properties that are undervalued because of location, age, aesthetic condition, or liquidation deadline, then budgeting the costs of the mortgage down payment, 3 - 6 monthly payments (depending on the amount of work done and the temperature of the real estate market), and the costs of remodeling and landscaping.
For example, say there is a property worth $1 million. $200,000 covers the down payment, perhaps $30,000 in monthly payments, and another $120,000 in remodeling. With a $350,000 cash investment and less than a year, the house can sell for $1.5 million and the developer grosses $150,000, taxed as capital gains (at a lower rate) rather than as income.
But awards do not work quite the same way. Like suburban homes, each Nobel Peace Prize medal appears to be the same; unlike suburban homes, each prize is extremely personalized. Everyone may get the same medal, but none for doing the same thing.
Despite having been informed by the Nobel Committee that the Peace Prize is non-transferrable, Machado knew Trump really wants one. Perhaps she learned from other nations’ leaders that by presenting a golden trinket, she might find favor.
There was a big problem with how she presented the award to Trump, though, that disqualified her from getting more than a Donald J. Trump White House® SWAG bag.
The 2025 Nobel Peace Prize Medal awarded to Maria Corina Machado
Uh oh. She “gave” him her Nobel Peace Prize, and recorded that he did not win it himself.
We all know that portion of the gift will be altered to reflect Trump’s preference, but the audacity to re-gift and still lay claim to the thing will not be tolerated. Plus, there’s a $500,000 award that comes with the prize: Where’s the money?
That failure to pass on the money, along with the reminder that he did not win the medal, means Machado will be kept as a useful idiot, perhaps even be installed as President-for-Life (she will never put her hold on power at risk) at some point in the next few years. She’s already dropping dimes on the remainder of Maduro’s cabinet—we have another “arrest” upcoming, since Congress will not authorize “military” action.
‘The real ringleader’: the Venezuelan security chief with a $25m bounty on his head
Security chief Diosdado Cabello is nicknamed the Octopus for good reason, with the regime’s fate said to rest with him
Regime change, one arrest at a time.
Symbolically, Machado seems to have hoped that she could flip the Nobel Peace Prize into owning Venezuela. Her problem is she’s dealing with a guy who imagines himself to be the best dealmaker ever (in real estate, especially), and in his eyes making a good deal means screwing over the other guy (or woman).