Machado Says She Presented Trump With Nobel Medal

President Trump sat down Thursday with the Venezuelan opposition leader he no longer seems to want in charge. María Corina Machado, the Nobel Peace Prize winner once seen as Venezuela's president-in-waiting, spent about 2.5 hours with Trump at the White House in a closed-door meeting that came as the president increasingly backs her rival, acting President Delcy Rodríguez. The session was unusually low-profile for Trump, with no photo-ops or immediate White House readout, the Washington Post reports. Emerging to greet a small crowd of supporters, Machado insisted, "We count with President Trump's support for Venezuela's liberty."

Public signals suggest otherwise, the Post reports. On Wednesday, Trump held his first known direct call with Rodríguez, former second-in-command to ousted President Nicolas Maduro, and later praised her as "a terrific person." Press secretary Karoline Leavitt called Machado "remarkable and brave" but stressed that Trump's view that she doesn't have what it takes to lead Venezuela "has not changed." She credited Rodríguez with helping seal a $500 million energy deal and the release of five US prisoners, and said Trump is "pleased with the job Rodríguez is doing." Asked what the president hoped to hear from Machado, Leavitt said, "I don't think he needs to hear anything from Ms. Machado."

Last week, Machado offered to give Trump her Nobel Peace Prize medal, and Trump, who has often complained about not winning the prize, said it would be an "honor" to accept it. After the meeting, she said, "I presented the president of the United States the medal of the Nobel Peace Prize," the BBC reports. She called it "a recognition for his unique commitment with our freedom." It's not clear whether Trump accepted her medal. The Nobel Institute stressed last week that owning a medal would not make Trump a Peace Prize winner, the New York Times reports. "Once a Nobel Prize is announced, it cannot be revoked, shared, or transferred to others," the institute said. "The decision is final and stands for all time."

For Machado, the visit was a bid to claw back influence in Washington as US forces seize sanctioned Venezuelan oil tankers and Trump presses Caracas to open its oil sector to American companies. The optics underscored the confusion around Venezuela's transition. Machado's supporters rallied outside the White House, some thanking Trump, others warning that Rodríguez is "the same as Maduro."