What to Expect From the First Meeting Between Trump and Venezuelan Opposition Leader Machado

President Donald Trump is planning to meet with Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado next week in what will be the first face-to-face meeting between the two political figures.

“Well, I understand she’s coming in next week sometime, and I look forward to saying hello to her,” Trump said on Fox News’ “Hannity” on Thursday, calling Machado a “very nice person.”

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It is not yet clear when and where the meeting between the two political figures will take place, or what they plan to discuss. The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Read more: What’s Happening With the U.S. and Venezuela, Explained

But the meeting is set to occur just a couple weeks after the Trump Administration authorized an aggressive military operation in Venezuela to capture the nation’s president, Nicolás Maduro, after which Trump declined to back Machado to become the next Venezuelan leader. It also follows Machado’s receipt of the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize—an award she in turn dedicated to Trump, who had openly campaigned for it, and that she has since offered to share it with him.

Here’s what to know.

A contentious shift in Venezuelan leadership

Following the attack in which U.S. forces seized Maduro, Trump said that the U.S. would “run the country” until a “proper and judicious transition” of power occurred. 

Many both within and beyond Venezuela expected that Machado would succeed the deposed leader. But in a controversial move, Trump instead named Delcy Rodríguez, who served as Venezuela’s vice president under Maduro beginning in 2018, as the most likely candidate to do so. Asked if Machado could run the country, Trump said last weekend that it would be “very tough” for her.

“She’s a very nice woman, but she doesn’t have the respect within the country,” he said.

Rodríguez was sworn in as Venezuela’s interim president on Monday. While Trump appeared to indicate support for her taking over, he has also warned that “if she doesn’t do what’s right, she is going to pay a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro.”

Read more: Who is Delcy Rodríguez, Venezuela’s New Leader?

Machado was living in hiding in Venezuela until December, when she fled to Oslo. In the aftermath of Maduro’s capture, she has said she plans to return to Venezuela “as soon as possible.”

Speaking with Fox News’ Sean Hannity earlier this week, she condemned Rodríguez. “Delcy Rodriguez, as you know, is one of the main architects of torture, persecution, corruption, narco trafficking,” Machado said. “She’s the main ally and liaison with Russia, China, Iran, certainly not an individual that could be trusted by international investors. And she’s really rejected, repudiated by the Venezuelan people.”

Machado, for her part, called for opposition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia, who ran against Maduro in 2024, to “immediately assume his constitutional mandate and be recognized as Commander in Chief of the National Armed Forces” in a social media post following Maduro’s ouster. 

The Nobel Peace Prize

Trump has publicly coveted the Nobel Peace Prize, and campaigned for the 2025 award. But it was instead bestowed on Machado, who the Nobel Committee called “one of the most extraordinary examples of civilian courage in Latin America in recent times.”

Machado dedicated the award to Trump, expressing her approval for his strikes on boats that the U.S. government alleged were trafficking drugs.

And during her appearance on Fox News’ “Hannity” earlier this week, the opposition leader thanked the U.S. President for his actions in Venezuela and indicated that she wanted to share her Nobel Peace Prize with him.

“Jan. 3 will go down in history as the day justice defeated tyranny,” she said.

Read more: Meet the 2025 Nobel Prize Winners

Trump said in his Fox News interview on Thursday that he would be happy to accept the award from Machado.

“I’ve heard she wants to do that,” he said of Machado sharing the prize with him. “That would be a great honor.”