Trump Sets Date To Meet With Machado After Saying She Likely Won’t Lead Venezuela

President Donald Trump is set to meet with exiled Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado at the White House on Thursday, a White House official confirmed to The Daily Wire.

The meeting comes as Trump plans the next phase for Venezuela’s government and oil industry as the United States continues to apply pressure on the socialist regime following the capture of dictator Nicolás Maduro. Trump appears to have a strong relationship with Machado, who was named the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize over Trump, but the president said earlier this month that he doesn’t believe Machado has enough “support” or “respect” in Venezuela to become its next leader.

“I think it would be very tough for her to be the leader,” Trump said. “She doesn’t have the support within, or the respect within, the country. She’s a very nice woman, but she doesn’t have the respect.”

Machado has been one of Maduro’s top enemies after gaining momentum as an opposition leader in 2024. Despite winning her party’s primary to challenge Maduro, she was disqualified by the government as a presidential candidate. She then backed Maduro’s challenger, Edmundo González, but was forced to flee the country after Maduro was declared the winner of the 2024 presidential election over González despite evidence showing that Maduro lost.

After the United States captured Maduro in a late-night raid on January 3, Trump has declined to throw his support behind a regime change, which could put someone like Machado or González in power. Instead, Trump continues to negotiate with the interim government, which remains loyal to Maduro.

“We don’t want to be involved with having somebody else get in, and we have the same situation that we had for the last long period of years,” Trump said at a press conference following Maduro’s capture.

Venezuela’s interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, condemned the United States following the raid on Maduro’s compound and claims that Maduro remains the rightful leader of the country.

Machado’s meeting with Trump could give the opposition leader an opportunity to convince the president to push for major government reform in Venezuela, and she suggested that she would offer Trump her Nobel Peace Prize for the work he’s done in capturing Maduro. Trump responded to the offer, saying it would be a “great honor” to accept the prize from Machado. The Norwegian Nobel Institute said on Friday, however, that the prize cannot be transferred to another person after it has been awarded.

“Once a Nobel Prize is announced, it cannot be revoked, shared or transferred to others,” the institute wrote, according to The New York Times. “The decision is final and stands for all time.”

After she was named the Nobel Peace Prize winner in October, Machado dedicated the award to Trump “for his decisive support of our cause.” Trump has long sought a Nobel and said earlier this month that it was “a major embarrassment to Norway” that he was not the 2025 winner.