Who will lead Venezuela? Trump set to meet with opposition leader

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump will sit down with María Corina Machado this week in Washington, the White House said, after he indicated the Venezuelan politician's involvement in the leadership of her country would hinge on a conversation with him.

A White House official said the meeting would take place on Jan. 15. Machado was also expected to meet with United States lawmakers during the visit.

"We are going to welcome her in Congress, and I'm sure that President Trump is going to be highly, highly pleased with that meeting," Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar, R-Florida, said on "Face the Nation" on Jan. 11.

Trump declined to back Machado, the Venezuelan opposition leader, in the immediate aftermath of the U.S. attack on Venezuela and the capture and ouster of its president, Nicolás Maduro.After she indicated she wanted to gift him the Nobel Peace Prize she won in 2025, Trump said he'd be willing to speak to her about a role in the government.

"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," Trump told reporters on Jan. 9 during a meeting with oil executives at the White House.

Trump administration officials have said they'd like to see the Venezuela move toward democratic elections, but they have not offered a timeline for them to take place.

"We have to rebuild the country. They couldn't have an election," Trump said during an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity last week. "They wouldn't even know how to have an election right now."

In the meantime, interim President Delcy Rodríguez, who was Maduro's second-in-command, and her team have been "very cooperative" and the president expects that to continue, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Jan. 12, pointing to the Venezuelan government's pledge to release political prisoners.

The U.S. justified its attack on Caracas by categorizing it as a law enforcement operation against Maduro, who the Justice Department indicted on charges of narcotrafficking. 

The Venezuelan strongman was an illegitimate president, the U.S. says, and his last election victory was widely disputed by international observers. Machado's party collected voting tallies that the opposition party offered as proof that Maduro had lost.

Machado left the country last year to accept the Nobel Peace Prize in Norway and has not returned to Caracas since. She was at the Vatican, meeting with Pope Leo XIV, at the beginning of this week.

She said in an interview last week with Hannity that she intends to return to Venezuela as soon as possible.

Machado dedicated her peace prize to Trump and told Hannity he deserved to have it for removing Maduro from power.

Trump later told the host, "I understand she's coming in next week sometime and I look forward to saying hello to her, and I've heard that she wants to do that. That would be a great honor."

The Norwegian Committee has since said the prestigious prize cannot be transferred.

This story has been updated to add new information.