Venezuelan opposition leader Machado to visit White House on Thursday
Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado attends a press conference with the President of Norway's Parliament Storting on December 11
By Alayna Treene, CNN
(CNN) — Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize winner, is scheduled to meet with President Donald Trump on Thursday, a senior White House official told CNN.
Her visit to the White House comes as the president declined to endorse her following the US military strikes in Caracas and capture of the country’s leader, Nicolás Maduro, whose vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, has been sworn in as acting president.
Shortly after the January 3 operation, Trump said it would be tough for Machado to lead Venezuela, saying she doesn’t have the support or the respect of the people.
Machado, however, has something Trump has long coveted — a Nobel Prize. She’s suggested she’d offer her award to the US president and he’s said it’d be an “honor” to receive it, although the Norwegian Nobel Institute has said the prize cannot be transferred.
Asked on Friday whether receiving Machado’s prize would make him reconsider his view of her role in Venezuela, Trump didn’t directly answer.
“I’m going to have to speak to her. She might be involved in some aspect of it. I will have to speak to her. I think it’s very nice that she wants to come in. And that’s what I understand the reason is,” the president told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins during a meeting with oil executives at the White House.
“I can’t think of anybody in history that should get the Nobel Prize more than me. And I don’t want to be bragging, but nobody else settled wars,” Trump said.
This story has been updated with additional details.
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CNN’s Samantha Waldenberg contributed to this report.
