President Trump says Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado will visit the White House soon, a meeting that will focus on the future of the Western Hemisphere — and the fate of her Nobel Peace Prize.
She recently dedicated the prize to Mr. Trump and said she would love to “give it to him, share it with him” following the U.S. capture and extradition to New York of their mutual opponent, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, on narco-terrorism charges.
“I understand she’s coming in next week sometime, and I look forward to saying hello to her,” Mr. Trump said Thursday.
Speaking to Sean Hannity on Fox News, the president said getting the prize “would be a great honor.”
Ms. Machado, 58, is a natural ally of the U.S. as it tries to move Venezuela beyond the Maduro era. She mounted an aggressive campaign as a legitimate contender against Mr. Maduro in 2024, but the regime barred her from running.
Meanwhile, Mr. Trump has said Ms. Machado does not possess the needed support in Venezuela to lead it right now as he tries to keep a lid on political chaos and tap into the South American country’s oil reserves.
“I think it would be very tough for her to be the leader. She doesn’t have the support within or the respect within the country,” Mr. Trump told reporters after the Maduro raid. “She’s a very nice woman, but she doesn’t have the respect to be a leader.”
Instead, the U.S. administration is relying on acting President Delcy Rodriguez, who was vice president under Mr. Maduro.
Ms. Rodriguez criticized the raid to oust Mr. Maduro, though her government released political prisoners in a conciliatory move to the U.S.
Ms. Machado, dubbed the Iron Lady, has been a longtime critic of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela since it rose to power in the late 1990s under Hugo Chavez.
She rose to prominence as part of the vote-monitoring organization Sumate, led demonstrations against the Maduro regime and went into hiding after the 2024 election.
She praised the U.S. operation to oust Mr. Maduro but hasn’t spoken with Mr. Trump since the raid.
Ms. Machado did speak to other U.S. officials, including Sen. Rick Scott, Florida Republican.
“She’s extremely grateful for [Mr. Trump’s] bold action to hold Maduro and his thugs accountable and work to restore freedom and democracy in Venezuela,” Mr. Scott wrote on X.
Ms. Machado won past praise from Secretary of State Marco Rubio for her tenacity and visited President George W. Bush in the Oval Office in 2005 to discuss her efforts to safeguard the ballot in Venezuela.
The Nobel committee last year praised “her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy. As the leader of the democracy movement in Venezuela, Maria Corina Machado is one of the most extraordinary examples of civilian courage in Latin America in recent times.”
The White House has not detailed when the Machado–Trump meeting would take place.
Her peace prize could be featured largely in the sitdown, given Mr. Trump’s campaign for the honor.
Mr. Trump says Norwegian judges made a “huge mistake” in passing him over, pointing to his role in settling several international conflicts.
