Donald Trump met with Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado on Thursday afternoon, a high-stakes encounter that could affect how the U.S. president seeks to shape the South American country’s political future.
The lunch meeting marked the first time the two met in person. After departing the White House around 2:40 p.m. ET, Machado told reporters the encounter was “great.” She did not otherwise comment on the substance of the conversation, which appeared to last slightly over an hour.
While the visit was going on, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump had been looking forward to meeting Machado, but that he stood by his “realistic” assessment that she did not currently have the support needed to lead the country in the short term.
Machado, who fled Venezuela in a daring seaborne escape in December, is competing for Trump’s ear with members of Venezuela’s government and seeking to ensure she has a role in governing the nation going forward.
After the U.S. captured Venezuela’s longtime leader, Nicolás Maduro, in a snatch-and-grab operation this month, various opposition figures, members of Venezuela’s diaspora and politicians throughout the U.S. and Latin America have expressed hope that Venezuela will begin the process of democratization.
“I know the president was looking forward to this meeting, and he was expecting it to be a good and positive discussion with Miss Machado, who is really a remarkable and brave voice for many of the people of Venezuela,” Leavitt told reporters during the briefing.
“So the president looks forward to obviously talking to her about the realities on the ground in the country and what is taking place.”
Trump has said he is focused on economically rebuilding Venezuela and securing U.S. access to the country’s oil. The day after the Jan. 3 operation, he expressed doubts that Machado had the backing needed to return to the country and govern, telling reporters, “She doesn’t have the support within, or the respect within, the country.”
Trump has on several occasions praised Delcy Rodríguez, Venezuela’s interim president, telling Reuters in an interview on Wednesday, “she’s been very good to deal with.”
Machado was banned from running in Venezuela’s 2024 presidential election by a top court stacked with government allies. Maduro claimed victory, but outside observers widely believe Edmundo González, an opposition figure backed by Machado, in fact won more votes by a substantial margin.
While the current government has freed dozens of political prisoners in recent days, outside groups and advocates have said the scale of the releases has been exaggerated by Caracas.
Machado’s peace prize
Trump has long sought the Nobel Peace Prize, which was awarded to Machado last month.
Machado had suggested she would give the prize to the U.S. president for having deposed Maduro, though the Norwegian Nobel Institute has said the prize cannot be transferred, shared or revoked.
Upon exiting her meeting with Trump, Machado declined to say if she had presented the prize to the president.
But Machado subsequently said she had presented it to Trump during Thursday’s meeting, though she did not answer reporters’ questions as to whether he accepted it.
Asked on Wednesday if he wanted Machado to give him the prize, Trump told Reuters: “No, I didn’t say that. She won the Nobel Peace Prize.”
Machado is due to meet with a bipartisan group of senior senators on Capitol Hill on Thursday afternoon. The opposition leader has generally found more enthusiastic allies in Congress than in the White House, with some lawmakers having expressed concerns about Trump’s dismissals of her ability to govern.
U.S. seizes another tanker
The meeting between Trump and Machado came hours after the U.S. seized another Venezuela-linked tanker, U.S. officials told Reuters.
The seizure of the tanker Thursday is the sixth vessel targeted in recent weeks that was either carrying Venezuelan oil or had done so in the past. The officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the seizure took place in the Caribbean.
The U.S. military’s Southern Command confirmed the pre-dawn operation, saying U.S. forces apprehended Motor/Tanker Veronica “without incident.” It said the Veronica was “operating in defiance of President Trump’s established quarantine of sanctioned vessels in the Caribbean.”
“The only oil leaving Venezuela will be oil that is coordinated properly and lawfully,” Southern Command said in a statement.
The Guyana-flagged Aframax tanker Veronica departed empty from Venezuelan waters in early January, according to shipping documents from state company PDVSA and monitoring service TankerTrackers.com. The vessel had not returned to Venezuela as other ships have done in recent days.
The seizures began as part of Trump’s campaign to force Maduro out of power.
The United States is tightening its grip on Venezuela’s oil supplies after seizing two more tankers, one of them flying a Russian flag. The U.S. said the tankers were part of a ‘shadow fleet’ carrying sanctioned Venezuelan oil.
Since then, Trump has said the United States plans to control Venezuela’s oil resources indefinitely as it seeks to rebuild the country’s dilapidated oil industry in a $100 billion US plan.
The U.S. government has filed for court warrants to seize dozens more tankers linked to the Venezuelan oil trade, four sources told Reuters on Wednesday, as Washington consolidates control of oil shipments in and out of the South American country.
The vessels intercepted so far have been either under U.S. sanctions or part of a “shadow fleet” of unregulated ships that disguise their origins to move oil from major sanctioned producers — Iran, Russia or Venezuela.
Most of the Venezuela-linked vessels seized so far were flying fake flags or their flag registrations had been cancelled before the interceptions, the maritime authorities of Panama, Cook Islands and Guyana have told Reuters.
Last week, the U.S. seized a Russian-flagged oil tanker that was being shadowed by a Russian submarine after pursuing it for more than two weeks across the Atlantic.
The move was condemned by Moscow.
