President Donald Trump is set to meet with Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado on Thursday, according to a White House official.
The meeting comes as Trump has decided to elevate Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez over Machado, allowing a top ally of ousted leader Nicolas Maduro to retain power even as Trump indicates the U.S. will run the country.
Machado, who won the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize for her work to promote democracy and human rights in Venezuela, emerged from several months of hiding in Venezuela to accept the prize in Oslo last month.
Machado in October dedicated her prize “to the suffering people of Venezuela and to President Trump for his decisive support of our cause.” In an interview with Fox News last week, Machado said she intended to share the prize with Trump, but the Nobel Institute later said in a statement that the prize could not be revoked, shared or transferred.
Trump said Friday that “Norway is very embarrassed” by the decision not to award him the Nobel Prize. Asked whether he’d change his mind about her running the country if she shared the prize with him, he said only, “I have to speak to her.”
Some GOP hawks have pushed for a faster timeline for elections in Venezuela after Trump suggested that the U.S. could run the country for several years, telling NBC News that elections will probably not take place within the next 30 days.
Still, several Republicans were encouraged by Trump agreeing to take the meeting. Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.), one of Machado's biggest supporters in Congress, said in a Sunday interview with CBS’ “Face the Nation” that she was confident Machado “will have a very good, long, solid conversation with the president” and that she has earned the support of the Venezuelan people.
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