Trump to meet with Venezuela’s opposition leader after praising ‘terrific’ Maduro loyalist
President Donald Trump is slated to meet with Venezuela’s opposition leader and 2025 Nobel Peace Prize recipient María Corina Machado at the White House Thursday. Trump announced Jan. 3 that...
By Fox News · Fox News
President Donald Trump is slated to meet with Venezuela’s opposition leader and 2025 Nobel Peace Prize recipient María Corina Machado at the White House Thursday. Trump announced Jan. 3 that the U.S. had captured dictator Nicolás Maduro and that the U.S. would be running Venezuela until a safe transition could occur. But instead of endorsing Machado, Trump cast doubt on her abilities to lead the country. "I think it would be very tough for her to be the leader," Trump told reporters on Jan. 3. "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." Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the administration chose not to support Machado because the U.S. didn’t want to make similar mistakes to the ones it’s previously made in the Middle East in Latin America, although he said he had "tremendous admiration" for Machado. TRUMP SIGNALS LONG ROAD AHEAD IN VENEZUELA IN HIS BOLDEST INTERVENTIONIST MOVE YET "But there’s the mission that we are on right now. … A lot of people analyze everything that happens in foreign policy through the lens of Iraq, Libya, or Afghanistan," Rubio said Jan. 4 in an interview with CBS. "This is not the Middle East. This is the Western Hemisphere, and our mission here is very different." A classified CIA assessment, which senior policymakers requested and presented to Trump, evaluated who would be the best fit to oversee an interim government in Venezuela following the overthrow of Maduro, a source familiar with the intelligence told Fox News Digital. Ultimately, it determined that Marduro's vice president, Maduro’s vice president, Delcy Rodríguez , would be best situated to lead the country. Although the Washington Post reported that Trump was annoyed Machado won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2025 — an award he had hoped to receive and that Machado dedicated to him — the White House claimed that Trump's choices were based on "realistic decisions." As a result, Trump has put…