Trump meets with María Corina Machado just hours after praising Delcy Rodríguez

Twelve days after the U.S. military operation that captured Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro and his wife, and just days after U.S. President Donald Trump dashed the hopes of opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado, the two met at the White House on Thursday.

The meeting between Trump and Machado comes just hours after the U.S. president told reporters that Chavista leader and interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, was a “terrific person.” “She’s somebody that we’ve worked with very well,” said Trump. Following Maduro’s arrest, the former vice president took charge of Venezuela with the blessing of the White House.

In the hours following the surprise attack that ended with Maduro and his wife, Cecilia Flores, sitting in the dock of a federal court in New York accused of crimes of “narco-terrorism,” conspiracy and trafficking in cocaine and weapons, Trump made it clear that he does not consider Machado to be the right person to lead a transition in Venezuela — a transition in which Trump himself has reserved a central role.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Thursday that Trump was “looking forward” to meeting Machado, who she described as “a remarkable and brave voice for many of the people of Venezuela.” But when asked shortly afterward whether Trump still believes Machado is not the right person to lead Venezuela’s political transition because she lacks the “support and respect” of the population, Leavitt replied: “It was a realistic assessment [...] and at this moment in time, his opinion on that matter has not changed.”

That was the big question surrounding Machado’s visit: will she be able to assert the opposition’s role in Washington’s plans to help steer the South American country and take charge of its oil? But the meeting, which was over in just two hours, was a discreet, low‑profile encounter. Leavitt’s statement that Trump’s view “has not changed” was another cold dose of reality.

Leavitt also responded to press questions about Trump administration contacts with Delcy Rodríguez. She said that Trump spoke to Rodríguez this week, and that Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other officials “have been in constant communication” with her and other members of the interim government in Venezuela.

“They have been extremely cooperative. They have thus far met all of the demands and requests of the United States and of the president. And I think you have all seen that play out,” Leavitt said. “We obviously had a $500 million energy deal that was struck in large part because of the cooperation from Ms. Rodríguez. The president likes what he’s seeing and we’ll expect that cooperation to continue.”

Since Maduro’s fall, Machado has tried to put on a brave face about Trump’s rebuffs and has worked to make this Thursday’s meeting happen, on which much was at stake: she needed to convince the U.S. president that it was not a good idea to allow Rodríguez, her great enemy, to remain in power. For months, Machado advocated for a military intervention that finally came on January 3 — only to be disappointed that the U.S. had not relied on her as much as she had expected.

Machado even showed herself willing to share the Nobel Peace Prize she received in Oslo last December with Trump, even though the Nobel Committee has already warned both of them that it is not transferable. The U.S. president is obsessed with the idea that he deserves that award, believing he has ended “eight or nine wars,” although that belief is another indication of his fraught relationship with the truth. After the meeting, Machado told the press that she had indeed “presented” the prize to Trump, who rarely even calls her by name when speaking about the Venezuelan opposition leader. “I presented the president of the United States the medal of the Nobel Peace Prize,” Machado told journalists, calling it “a recognition for his unique commitment with our freedom.”

Trump’s decision to sideline Machado gives the impression that the White House has chosen to turn the page on the results of Venezuela’s 2024 presidential election, which international reports say was broadly won by Edmundo González Urrutia, Machado’s candidate (she was unable to run because she was disqualified). Maduro refused to acknowledge that defeat.

At this point, it’s unclear whether the United States plans to call new elections in Venezuela, or when or how that might take place. All of these questions will certainly be on the table this Thursday at the White House.

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