Trump to Meet Nobel Winner Machado at White House
U.S. President Trump will meet Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado at the White House as Venezuela’s leadership crisis intensifies and U.S. foreign policy shifts.
Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Corina Machado will meet with President Donald Trump on Thursday, the White House confirmed.
The visit comes weeks after Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was apprehended by U.S. forces in Caracas. However, Trump has refused to endorse Machado, whose movement claimed victory in the widely disputed 2024 elections and declared her their new leader.
Instead, the U.S. has backed Maduro's former vice president, Delcy Rodríguez.
Machado said last week that she hoped to personally thank Trump for the action against Maduro and wanted to give him her Nobel Prize. Trump called it "a great honor," but the Nobel Committee later clarified that it is not transferable.
Earlier, Trump had expressed resentment over Machado's acceptance of the Nobel Peace Prize, an honor the president has long coveted.
When asked on Friday whether Machado's receiving the award might change his perspective on her role in Venezuela, the president said: "She might be involved in some aspect of it."
"I have to talk to her. I think it's a very good thing that she wants to come. And I understand that's the reason," he said.
Earlier this month, after Maduro's removal, Trump said that Machado "doesn't have support or respect within the country." "She's a very nice woman, but she doesn't have respect," he said.
The U.S. has so far supported Delcy Rodríguez as Venezuela's interim president.
Trump refers to Rodríguez as an "ally," and U.S. officials have not accused her of any wrongdoing. White House press secretary Carolyn Leavitt said Monday, "Delcy Rodriguez and her team have been very cooperative with the United States."
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But Machado has said her coalition should "absolutely" take charge of the country.
Machado said no one trusts Rodriguez, telling CBS that the interim leader was "one of the main architects of the repression of innocent people" in the South American country.
"Everyone in Venezuela and abroad knows very well who she is and the role she has played," Machado said.
The former legislator, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last year, described U.S. military intervention in Venezuela as "a great step toward restoring prosperity, the rule of law, and democracy in Venezuela." Rodriguez rejected Trump's claim that the U.S. is in charge of Venezuela.
"The Venezuelan government governs our country, and no one else," she said in a televised address. "No external force is governing Venezuela."
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