The White House confirmed President Donald Trump will meet this week with Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado amid renewed U.S. focus on Venezuela’s political leadership.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
President Donald Trump is scheduled to meet Thursday with Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, according to a White House official who confirmed the plans to The Hill.
The meeting follows comments Trump made last week indicating that Machado would be visiting Washington. “Well, I understand she’s coming in next week sometime, and I look forward to saying hello to her,” Trump said during an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity.
Machado also appeared on Hannity’s program last week, where she said she would like to present Trump with the Nobel Peace Prize she said she received earlier this year. Trump responded during his interview that it would be “a great honor” to receive the prize from Machado.
Following those remarks, the Nobel Institute issued a clarification stating that the Nobel Peace Prize “can neither be revoked, shared, nor transferred to others” and that “once the announcement has been made, the decision stands for all time.”
Trump has offered mixed assessments of Machado’s political prospects in Venezuela. Prior to the Hannity interview, he publicly dismissed the likelihood of her becoming the country’s next leader after the United States arrested Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on drug-trafficking and weapons charges, to which Maduro has pleaded not guilty. “I think it’d be very tough for her to be the leader,” Trump said. “She doesn’t have the support or the respect within the country. She’s a very nice woman but she doesn’t have the respect.”
Venezuela’s government is currently being run by interim acting President Delcy Rodriguez.
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