Authored by Joseph Lord via The Epoch Times,
U.S. President Donald Trump will meet with Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado at the White House today (Jan. 15).
“She’s a very nice woman,” Trump told Reuters in a Jan. 14 interview. “I think we’re just going to talk basics.”
The United States said in 2024 that then-Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro lost the presidential election to Machado’s party. Machado was going to run against Maduro in the 2024 election, but the regime disqualified her. She went into hiding and was succeeded by Edmundo González.
Machado said in July 2024 that González won the disputed election with 70 percent of the vote and declared him president-elect. Her party said the results showing Maduro won were fraudulent. Then-U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken agreed.
“Given the overwhelming evidence, it is clear to the United States and, most importantly, to the Venezuelan people that Edmundo González Urrutia won the most votes in Venezuela’s July 28 [2024] presidential election,” Blinken said in a statement at the time.
Trump’s meeting with Machado comes in the wake of an unprecedented raid in which U.S. forces captured Maduro from the capital city of Caracas.
The nation’s presidential website still identifies Maduro as “Venezuelan president”—referring to Delcy Rodriguez as “acting president”—and calls for Maduro’s release. Rodriguez has made similar calls for her predecessor’s release.
Rodriguez, alongside many members of Maduro’s inner circle, remains in charge of day-to-day government operations.
Maduro is currently facing narcoterrorism charges and a litany of other charges in U.S. federal court and could face life imprisonment if convicted. He denies the charges.
In this courtroom sketch, ousted Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro attends his arraignment to face U.S. federal charges, including narcoterrorism, conspiracy, drug trafficking, money laundering, and others, at the Daniel Patrick Moynihan U.S. Courthouse in Manhattan on Jan. 5, 2026. Jane Rosenberg/Reuters
Trump said on Jan. 14 that he had a “great conversation” with Rodríguez, the first direct communication between the two since Maduro was ousted.
“We had a call, a long call. We discussed a lot of things,” Trump told reporters. “And I think we’re getting along very well with Venezuela.”
Venezuela’s deputy leader and oil minister, Delcy Rodriguez, addresses the media in Caracas, Venezuela, on March 10, 2025. Leonardo Fernandez Viloria/Reuters
Rodriguez has begun releasing political prisoners jailed under the previous regime, and says that these mass releases will continue.
Trump has previously questioned Machado’s credibility or authority to lead the nation.
Just hours after Maduro’s capture, Trump said “it would be very tough” for Machado to be the leader.
“She doesn’t have the support within or the respect within the country,” Trump said at the time.
“She’s a very nice woman, but she doesn’t have the respect.”
Machado’s whereabouts had largely been unknown since early 2025, when she went into hiding after being briefly detained in Caracas.
Machado won last year’s Nobel Peace Prize and has offered to share the prize with Trump, a move that has been rejected by the Nobel Institute.
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