Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado will meet President Donald Trump on Thursday, the White House confirmed.
The visit comes just weeks after Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was arrested by U.S. forces in Caracas. But Trump refused to endorse Machado, who claimed victory in the 2024 election, as the new leader.
Instead, the United States supported Maduro’s former Vice President Delcy Rodriguez.
Machado personally thanked Trump last week for his actions against Maduro and said he wanted to give him the Nobel Prize. President Trump called it a “great honor,” but the Nobel committee later said it was non-transferable.
Previously, President Trump expressed dissatisfaction with the decision to award Machado the Nobel Peace Prize, which he had long hoped for.
Asked Friday whether Machado’s award would change his view of her role in Venezuela, the president said “she may have been involved in some aspect of it.”
“I’m going to have to talk to her. I think it’s very good that she wants to come in, and that’s why I understand why,” he said.
Following Maduro’s ouster earlier this month, Trump said Machado “has no support or respect within the country.” “She’s a very nice girl, but she has no respect,” he said.
The United States has so far supported Delcy Rodriguez as Venezuela’s interim president.
Trump describes Rodriguez as an “ally” and she has not been charged by U.S. officials with any crime.
“Delsey Rodriguez and her team have been very cooperative with the United States,” White House press secretary Caroline Levitt said Monday.
But Machado has insisted his coalition is “absolutely” responsible for the country.
Machado told CBS that no one trusts Rodriguez, saying the interim leader has been “one of the main architects of the oppression of innocent people” in the South American country.
“Everyone in Venezuela and abroad knows perfectly well who she is and the role she plays,” Machado said.
The former congressman, who won the Nobel Peace Prize last year, described U.S. military action in Venezuela as “an important step toward restoring prosperity, the rule of law, and democracy in Venezuela.”
Rodriguez dismissed Trump’s claims that the United States was in charge of Venezuela.
“The Venezuelan government rules our country and no one else does,” she said in a televised address. “There is no external agent governing Venezuela.”
