Trump set to meet Machado in opening for Venezuela's opposition

Hadriana Lowenkron and Catherine Lucey, Bloomberg News on Jan 8, 2026

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WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump said he planned to meet with Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize recipient María Corina Machado as soon as next week, as he weighs the future governance of the nation following the weekend operation to capture strongman Nicolas Maduro.

“I understand she’s coming in next week sometime, and I look forward to saying hello to her,” Trump said in an interview Thursday with Fox News host Sean Hannity.

Since Maduro’s capture, Trump’s team has negotiated directly with Delcy Rodríguez, Maduro’s former vice president, with the U.S. president saying he planned to work with her as the U.S. sought to “run” Venezuela before a peaceful transition of power. Trump raised eyebrows by also saying he did not believe Machado had the support within Venezuela to be its next leader.

“I think it would be very tough for her to be the leader,” Trump said at a news conference hours after the attack. “She doesn’t have the support within or the respect within the country.”

But Machado said in an appearance earlier this week on the same Fox News program that she wanted to meet with Trump and present him with the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize. The U.S. president has openly said he believed he deserved to be honored with the award.

“I certainly would love to be able to personally tell him that we believe — the Venezuelan people, because this is a prize of the Venezuelan people, want to give it to him and share it with him,” Machado said.

In the interview, Machado said she last spoke with Trump on Oct. 10, the same day the prize was announced, but not since then.

On Thursday, Trump said he saw Venezuela as eventually having elections but said it would take “a while” before the U.S. was willing to hand back power.

“Right now, we’re going to rebuild the oil and the oil infrastructure,” Trump said. “We’ll be in charge of it, it’s going to be great, gonna make a lot of money, and we’re going to take it from there.”