Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado told reporters she presented the medal for her Nobel Peace Prize to President Donald Trump at a private White House meeting on Thursday, but did not say if he accepted it.
“I think today is a historic day for us Venezuelans,” she said after the meeting with Trump, the first time the two have met in-person.
From my talking with someone who grew up under a nation with a corrupt regime, self respect is a luxury that people under such a regime cannot afford when dealing with the government.
Small, petty, corrupt government personnel are a way of life and people just accept this sort of stuff as mundane fact of life.
So such folks are uniquely emotionally prepared for this sort of interaction.