President Donald Trump is scheduled to meet Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado at the White House on Thursday.
The sit-down comes as Trump resists picking a single lane, keeping his lines open to multiple power centers in Caracas after Nicolás Maduro’s capture.
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A White House meeting, but no endorsement
CNN reports Machado will be at the White House on Thursday, a visit that comes after the U.S. operation that captured Maduro and brought him to the United States to face federal narco-terrorism charges.
But Trump has not lined up squarely behind Machado as Venezuela’s next leader. After the Jan. 3 operation, he said it would be tough for her to lead and suggested she doesn’t have the support or respect of the Venezuelan public.
What he has done publicly is signal he’s willing to meet with Delcy Rodríguez, Maduro’s vice president who has been sworn in as acting president.
Speaking aboard Air Force One on Sunday, Trump was asked if he would meet with Rodriguez.
“At some point, I’ll meet, yeah,” he said. “It’s been very good.”
Trump also described an oil request he said came from Rodríguez: “Look, she asked us, could we take 50 million barrels of oil and I said yes we can. It’s 4.2 billion dollars.”
Machado’s other stop: the Vatican
Before Thursday’s White House meeting, Machado made a high-profile stop in Rome.
Pope Leo XIV received Machado in a private audience at the Vatican on Monday. Machado said afterward that she asked the pope to intercede for the release of Venezuelans she described as “kidnapped or missing,” and raised concern about political prisoners.
The Vatican later listed the meeting in its daily bulletin without additional detail. AP also reports Machado held talks with Vatican Secretary of State Pietro Parolin.
The Nobel Prize subplot that won’t go away
Machado also brings something Trump has openly wanted: a Nobel Peace Prize.
Machado told Fox News in an interview last week that she would offer her 2025 Nobel Peace Prize to Trump as an act of gratitude. Trump has said it would be an “honor” to receive it.
But in response, the Norwegian Nobel Institute says that’s not how this works. The institute issued a statement saying the Nobel Peace Prize cannot be revoked, shared or transferred, citing the Nobel Foundation’s rules and emphasizing the decision is final.
Still, the idea has lingered. It’s also drawn skepticism from Trump’s critics.
Former national security adviser John Bolton told CNN Monday he always worried Trump would try to take a Nobel medal if he couldn’t win one outright, pointing to the Peace Prize awarded to Theodore Roosevelt, which hangs in the White House.
Bolton argued the fixation says less about Venezuela’s future than about Trump himself, a view that mirrors the uncertainty surrounding Thursday’s meeting. “Look, it’s always all about Trump,” Bolton said. “He cares less about Venezuela than he does the prize. And by the way, she can give him the medallion and still keep the prize, if that’s what he wants.”
Where this leaves things
Machado is coming to Washington looking for recognition, leverage and a clear U.S. signal that the opposition’s claim to legitimacy matters.
Trump is signaling something else at the same time: he’s willing to talk to whoever is holding the levers right now, including Rodríguez, and he’s framing parts of this through dollars, oil and deal terms.
Thursday’s meeting will show whether Trump sees Machado as a central player, a supporting character or simply the most famous face of an opposition he’s not ready to hand the keys to.
