Maria Machado Meets With Trump at High-Profile Meeting Over Venezuela's Future

As Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado arrived at the White House Thursday for a lunch meeting with President Donald Trump, her main objective was to impress upon Trump the importance of transitioning Venezuela from an autocracy to a government elected by Venezuelans. It may be an uphill climb. Since Trump ordered the arrest of the country’s dictator Nicolas Maduro in a military raid on Jan. 3, he has signaled support for Maduro’s ally Delcy Rodriguez as Venezuela’s interim President, calling her “terrific,” while slighting Machado as not respected enough by Venezuelans to be their next leader. In the nearly two weeks since Maduro’s ouster, Rodriguez’s government has sent armed militias into the streets to search phones and arrest people who expressed support for Maduro’s capture. Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio want what’s left of Maduro’s autocratic government to fulfill U.S. demands to control Venezuela’s oil output and to stop drug smuggling. He hasn’t said publicly when he wants the current government to agree to allow free elections in the country. Maduro’s government refused to step down in July 2024 when Maduro lost the country’s presidential election. Machado’s ally Edmundo González won that election after Machado was banned from the ballot. As the high-stakes meeting was underway, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump was “looking forward” to having “a good and positive discussion.” Leavitt praised Machado as “a remarkable and brave voice for many of the people in” Venezuela. One question on people’s minds is whether Machado will hand Trump her Nobel Peace Prize medal. Trump has repeatedly said he deserves the award and his supporters have criticized Machado for accepting it. The day Machado won the award, she called Trump at the White House to tell him she was dedicating the prize to him. Machado told Fox News host Sean Hannity last week that she would like to tell him personally that the Venezuelan people “want to give it to him and share it with him.” Soon after, the Norwegian Nobel Institute released a statement asserting that its prizes “cannot be revoked, shared, or transferred.”