Trump to meet Venezuela opp leader tomorrow
Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado gestures at a protest ahead of the Friday inauguration of President Nicolas Maduro for his third term, in Caracas, Venezuela. Photo: Reuters
US President Donald Trump will host Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Corina Machado on Thursday at the White House, a senior administration official told AFP.
Machado has so far been sidelined by Washington after US forces seized then-president Nicolas Maduro on January 3, with Trump's administration claiming it would be "running" Venezuela.
Hours after deposing Maduro, Trump said Machado lacked the "respect" necessary to run the country, even though in the run-up to the last election in Venezuela the United States backed her and her proxy candidate for president.
The Trump administration has been working with Maduro's former deputy, Delcy Rodriguez, who is now Venezuela's interim president.
Since Maduro's ouster, Machado has heaped praise on Trump, and has offered to give him her Nobel Peace Prize, an award the US president has long publicly coveted.
Speaking last week, Trump said it would be "a great honor" to accept the gift. The Nobel Institute has said the prize cannot be transferred from one person to another.
On Monday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt defended Washington's policy of dealing with Rodriguez rather than the opposition represented by Machado.
"President Trump and his national security team made a realistic assessment of the reality on the ground in Venezuela, and that decision has turned out to be a good one," she told Fox News.
Leavitt said Washington had had "complete cooperation" from Venezuelan authorities, including on US seizures of oil.
Trump has repeatedly said that the United States will be dictating how Venezuela is run after Maduro's ouster, a characterization that interim President Rodriguez has denied.