Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado will meet with President Donald Trump on Thursday in Washington, a White House official told MS NOW.
Machado’s meeting with Trump comes after the president refused to endorse her to lead Venezuela following the U.S. military strikes in Caracas and the capture of the country’s authoritarian leader Nicolás Maduro.
Maduro’s vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, has since been sworn in as the country’s interim president.
In a news conference following Maduro’s Jan. 3 capture, Trump said it would be “very tough” for Machado to lead the country, adding she’s a “very nice woman,” who lacks “the respect within the country.”
Machado was awarded the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize for championing democratic rights in Venezuela and working to achieve a peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy. She had been forced into hiding for 11 months after a Venezuelan court issued a warrant for her arrest. But she appeared in Oslo, Norway, late last year after her daughter, Ana Corina Sosa, accepted the prize on her behalf.
She dedicated the award to Trump, who has long coveted a Nobel Prize. In the days following Maduro’s ouster, Machado praised the mission and said she would transfer the prize to Trump.
The Norwegian Nobel Institute rebuked the idea, saying last week that the Nobel Peace Prize cannot be transferred, shared or revoked.
Machado met with Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican on Monday, which was seen as another stop on her international tour to advocate for a democratic government in Venezuela.
Sydney Carruth is a breaking news reporter covering national politics and policy for MS NOW. You can send her tips from a non-work device on Signal at SydneyCarruth.46 or follow her work on X and Bluesky.