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Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado said Thursday that she presented her Nobel Peace Prize medal to President Donald Trump during a White House meeting, a striking symbolic gesture even as Trump has publicly questioned her ability to lead Venezuela following the U.S.-backed ouster of former President Nicolás Maduro.
Machado told reporters after leaving the White House that she gave Trump the medal as a sign of gratitude for what she described as his commitment to Venezuela’s freedom.
“I presented the president of the United States the medal, the Nobel Peace Prize,” Machado said as she headed to meetings on Capitol Hill. “It was a recognition for his unique commitment with our freedom.”
The Nobel Institute has said Machado cannot formally transfer the prize to Trump, who has long expressed interest in receiving the honor himself. Even so, the gesture drew attention because Trump has increasingly sidelined Machado in favor of working with Venezuela’s interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, a longtime Maduro ally who previously served as his second in command.
Trump later confirmed on social media that Machado had left the medal with him.
“She is a wonderful woman who has been through so much,” Trump wrote. “María presented me with her Nobel Peace Prize for the work I have done. Such a wonderful gesture of mutual respect.”
Mixed Signals on U.S. Support
The meeting underscored lingering uncertainty over Trump’s plans for Venezuela’s political future. While the administration has helped remove Maduro and intensified control over the country’s oil exports, it has offered few specifics on when democratic elections might take place or who Washington ultimately backs to lead the country.
Machado declined to provide details of her private discussion with Trump and said she received no concrete commitments.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt described Machado as “a remarkable and brave voice” but said the meeting did not signal a change in Trump’s view that Machado lacks sufficient support inside Venezuela.
“That remains a realistic assessment,” Leavitt said, adding that Trump supports new Venezuelan elections “when the time is right,” without offering a timetable.
Cheers Outside, Uncertainty at Home
After leaving the White House, Machado greeted cheering supporters gathered near the gates, hugging several and telling them, “We can count on President Trump,” prompting chants of thanks from the crowd.
The public show of enthusiasm contrasted with the political reality in Venezuela, where Rodríguez continues to oversee day-to-day governance alongside figures from Maduro’s inner circle. In her first state of the union address Thursday, Rodríguez promoted restoring diplomatic relations with the United States and opening Venezuela’s state-run oil sector to greater foreign investment following Trump’s pledge to seize control of Venezuelan crude sales.
Machado has largely stayed out of public view since traveling to Norway last month, where her daughter accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on her behalf. She had spent nearly a year in hiding inside Venezuela before leaving the country.
Lawmakers Voice Concern
Machado later met privately with a bipartisan group of senators. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said she warned that the lack of progress toward elections or a transfer of power in the coming months should raise alarm.
“She reminded us that Delcy Rodríguez is, in many ways, worse than Maduro,” Murphy said, adding that Machado received no firm commitments from the White House.
Republican Sen. Bernie Moreno of Ohio praised Trump’s actions, calling Maduro’s removal “the most important, significant event in Latin America” and saying Machado delivered that message forcefully.
Trump’s Doubts Remain
Trump has repeatedly expressed skepticism about Machado’s ability to govern, saying shortly after Maduro’s capture that it would be “very tough for her to be the leader” because she lacks sufficient domestic backing, despite widespread belief that her coalition won Venezuela’s disputed 2024 election.
Machado, an industrial engineer and longtime opposition figure, has challenged Venezuela’s ruling party for two decades. She rose to prominence after co-founding Súmate, a group that backed a failed 2004 recall referendum against then-President Hugo Chávez, later drawing government charges and political retaliation.
Nearly 20 years later, she galvanized millions against Maduro, only to see authorities loyal to the ruling party declare him the winner and crack down on protests — a sequence of events that ultimately led to the U.S.-led intervention that removed him from power.
