Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado said she presented President Donald Trump with her 18-carat gold Nobel Peace Prize medal during their White House meeting Thursday, which she said went well.
“I presented the President of the United States the medal of the Nobel Peace Prize,” Machado told reporters outside the U.S. Capitol on Thursday, adding that it was “a recognition for his unique commitment with our freedom.”
It wasn’t immediately clear whether Trump had accepted the prize from Machado.
Machado then met with a bipartisan group of senators on Capitol Hill including Sens. Rick Scott, R-Fla., a longtime supporter, and Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
“He’s really concerned about the security of the Venezuelan people, about the children that are not going to school because teachers make $1 per day,” Machado told the lawmakers, according her official spokesperson. “President [Trump] truly understands this reality.”
The White House meeting came after Trump refused to endorse Machado to lead Venezuela following the U.S. seizure of Nicolás Maduro.
Maduro’s vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, was sworn in as Venezuela’s interim president following Maduro’s capture on Jan. 3 by U.S. forces. Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, are being held in federal prison in New York. They face drug trafficking and narco-terrorism charges.
Thursday’s meetings were seen by regional experts as Machado’s opportunity to guarantee the opposition party a seat at the negotiating table as the U.S. and the Maduro regime chart a path forward for the oil-rich country.
“The stakes are really high for Machado,” Geoff Ramsey, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, said of the White House meeting. “She’ll have to thread the needle between praising the president for taking a risk and capturing Maduro while also pushing him on larger questions on democracy and human rights.”
Those questions were expected to center on exactly how the Trump administration intends to restore the country’s democratic institutions. Achieving a true democratic transition would require an independent judiciary, guarantees of press freedoms and the release of political prisoners who were detained by the Maduro regime amid protests over the contested 2024 presidential election, Ramsey said.
The transition process will be long and complicated. Rodríguez is one of several senior officials in the Maduro administration who now appear to control the country, despite Trump’s assertion that he is calling the shots.
Trump said he spoke with Rodríguez over the phone on Wednesday. He said the call was “very good,” adding the pair made “tremendous progress” toward a plan to stabilize Venezuela. Trump praised Rodríguez, a pillar of Venezuela’s socialist regime, as a “terrific person.”
“Any critical transition must be inclusive,” said Nathalie Rayes, former U.S. ambassador to the Republic of Croatia and co-chair of the Venezuelan-American Caucus. Guaranteeing the opposition party is included in transition negotiations is critical for Machado, Rayes said. Currently, the opposition party has no presence in Maduro’s Venezuela.
“They fear, there’s still fear,” Rayes, a Biden appointee, said. “Opposition leaders want to come back to a country and be part of this transition government.”
The Nobel Peace Prize that Machado holds was expected to be part of her strategy to win favor with Trump, who has long coveted the prestigious award.
Machado dedicated her 2025 Nobel Peace Prize to Trump. She also praised the administration’s strikes on alleged drug trafficking boats in the Caribbean. After Maduro’s capture, she thanked Trump and floated the idea of sharing her Nobel prize with him.
Although the Norwegian Nobel Committee quickly threw cold water on the idea, it was a show of favor for the president, whom Machado needs on her side as she seeks to fill the nascent power vacuum in Venezuela.
Trump’s endorsement of Rodríguez stunned Venezuelans, a majority of whom voted for Machado’s party in the 2024 presidential election.
“I think the best-case scenario for Machado would be leaving the White House meeting with some display of support from the president and a clear plan for a genuine democratic transition,” Ramsey said.
Republicans in Congress have expressed support for Machado to become Venezuela’s next president, despite Trump saying she does not currently have the respect and support it would take to lead the country.
At a press briefing shortly after Machado’s meeting with Trump got underway Thursday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump’s opinion of Machado’s ability to lead Venezuela has not changed.
Trump’s assessment, she said, was “based on realities on the ground,” adding it reflected analysis from the White House national security team.
But Trump’s endorsement of Rodríguez stunned Venezuelans, a majority of whom voted for Machado’s party in the 2024 presidential election.
A shift to democratic governance could hinder Trump’s plan to renovate Venezuela’s dilapidated oil infrastructure through private-sector investment from U.S. oil companies.
A law enacted by Venezuela’s National Assembly, which is staffed largely by illegitimately elected regime loyalists, prevents the production of oil by any company other than Petróleos de Venezuela, Venezuela’s national oil company.
“If you want to recover the Venezuelan economy and Venezuelan oil production, you have to start by endowing citizens with rights, rights that have been taken away. Without rights, it’s impossible to invest,” Ricardo Hausmann, a Harvard Kennedy School professor who formerly served as a minister in the Venezuelan government, said.
Akayla Gardner contributed to this report.
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