President Trump recognized Delcy Rodríguez as Venezuela's 'new president' and praised her for economic gains, sidelining opposition leader María Corina Machado.
WASHINGTON -- When María Corina Machado left Venezuela in December, escaping by boat and wearing a disguise, she hoped a U.S. intervention would oust Nicolás Maduro and force a democratic transition.
As the Venezuelan opposition leader prepares to go home, she will return to a very different country. Maduro is gone, but President Trump is now working closely with the remnants of his regime.
Machado appears to play no role in the Trump administration's current calculations, despite spending the past two months in Washington lobbying for a democratic transition. Instead, the face of what many consider Venezuela's legitimate government has become a spectator to Trump's embrace of Maduro's former top lieutenant, Delcy Rodríguez, whom he has recognized as the president of Venezuela.
Rodríguez "is doing a great job, and working with U.S. Representatives very well," Trump wrote on social media Wednesday. "The Oil is beginning to flow, and the professionalism and dedication between both Countries is a very nice thing to see!"
A few days earlier, Machado released a video message announcing she would return to Venezuela in "a few weeks" to help lead "a new and massive electoral victory," in reference to what she hopes will be an election she would win.
Since U.S. commandos captured Maduro on Jan. 3 and brought him to the U.S. to face trial, Machado has been ducking into Capitol Hill meeting rooms and foreign embassies, visiting Trump-aligned think tanks and sitting for television interviews. Her aides have rattled off her long list of meetings with top White House and State Department officials, 17 U.S. senators, 27 members of Congress and diplomats from 51 countries.
Addressing a packed room at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, Machado said she felt she had a "mandate from the Venezuelan people" and was prepared "to do what it takes as a legitimate government." She called Rodríguez a communist and "the main ally and representation of the Russian regime, the Chinese and Iranians." She received a standing ovation. Machado also addressed the Munich Security Conference, where she said it would be possible to have elections in 40 weeks.
Her appearances have drawn frustration from people in Trump's orbit who say she is putting herself ahead of the president's goals to stabilize the country and open it to U.S. interests. Some in the White House think Machado isn't doing herself any favors by going on television to beat the drum for a democratic transition or attack Rodríguez, according to people close to the president.
Longtime Trump confidant Roger Stone has called her the "fake opposition."
"Trump really deflated her balloon," Stone said of Machado.
It has been an unlikely change in fortunes for the 58-year-old activist, whose movement most of the international community -- including the U.S. -- recognized as the legitimate winners of the 2024 election against Maduro.
For two years, Machado built inroads in Washington with prominent allies eager to promote her cause. After Trump won a second term, many of them worked to connect her to MAGA circles. She strongly aligned herself with the U.S. president, defending his controversial strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and even amplifying unproven claims that Maduro's government rigged the 2020 U.S. election that Trump lost.
Soon after Maduro's seizure, Machado had her only face-to-face meeting with Trump, during which she gave him her Nobel Peace Prize.
While Trump wasn't expecting much going into the meeting, Machado impressed him with her toughness and knowledge, according to advisers. In addition to the Nobel Prize, she gave him a rosary blessed by Pope Leo XIV during her visit to Rome.
Machado didn't press Trump to call for elections, the people close to the president said, but made clear she wanted to be reintegrated into her country, and the president sounded supportive.
But in the weeks since then, the White House has been pleased with the direction Venezuela has taken under Rodríguez -- and struck by the relative calm. Aides say Trump maintains respect for Machado, but she isn't part of the administration's current calculations.
The State Department Thursday announced that Washington and the Venezuelan regime had agreed to re-establish diplomatic and consular relations, signaling Trump's commitment to deepen ties in the oil-rich country.
The following day, Trump met with Machado at the White House.
"As President Trump has stated, Delcy Rodriguez is doing a great job. The relationship with Venezuela is professional and productive," a White House official said. "President Trump met with Ms. Machado as a courtesy, and at her request."
"Machado is caught in a bind," said Geoff Ramsey, an expert on Venezuela and nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council. "She has to publicly praise the White House for its approach while privately working with sympathetic lawmakers and international allies to pressure Trump to give her a more central role in Venezuela's transition."
Machado's allies fear that recent deals and photo ops with senior Trump officials in Caracas could entrench Washington's partnership with the leftovers of Maduro's regime, making it harder to dislodge them, and further deferring an eventual transfer of power through elections. Her struggle embodies the unique nature of Trump's transactional approach to foreign affairs, as well as the difficulty of trying to maintain momentum in exile.
Machado's supporters include Florida's Republican lawmakers and conservative personalities such as Donald Trump Jr. and Rachel Campos-Duffy -- a Fox News host married to Trump's transportation secretary -- who set up the White House sit-down with Trump and has featured Machado on her show.
While in Washington, she has met with more than 35 ambassadors, including most European envoys, according to people familiar with her meetings. Many have privately expressed unease that Trump's transactional approach -- deposing a foreign leader and taking over the country's resources while playing down a democratic transition -- could become a playbook elsewhere, according to European diplomats. Already, U.S. officials have spoken of finding the "Delcy of Iran" or the "Delcy of Cuba."
In her meetings, Machado has maintained that the U.S. partnership with the government of Rodríguez isn't sustainable and that its dismantling is only a matter of time, according to people present.
Machado's return could test the new arrangement between Washington and Caracas, where Rodriguez has said Machado "will have to answer before Venezuela" for advocating the U.S. intervention that deposed Maduro.
Rodríguez has ingratiated herself with Trump by aligning with his priorities, especially on oil, opening up the country's vast reserves for U.S. investors. In February, Energy Secretary Chris Wright visited Caracas, where he smiled for photos with Rodríguez and lauded her government for its cooperation, while giving only passing mention to a transition. This week, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum met with Rodríguez and touted Venezuela’s mineral wealth to investors.
In his State of the Union address late last month, Trump reunited a Venezuelan political prisoner with his family and credited Rodríguez with facilitating the man’s release and praised her for helping “unleash extraordinary economic gains” for Venezuela and the U.S.
Machado was noticeably absent from the president’s remarks -- and the chamber. Trump’s reference to Rodríguez as “the new president” stung Machado supporters, as it appeared to legitimize Rodríguez and a regime the U.S. previously called illegitimate.
Trump has given no indication he intends to press for the speedy political transition sought by the opposition and early on said Machado “doesn’t have the support within or the respect within the country” to lead.
“When the country has recovered to the point where it can hold clean, transparent elections, it will be up to the Venezuelan people to choose their leader,” the White House said in a statement.
Venezuelans by a wide margin believe the country is headed in a good direction and strongly support the U.S. role, a poll released in February by Gold Glove Consulting shows. But nearly 70% want an election this year, which Machado would win overwhelmingly.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who nominated Machado for the Nobel Prize, has maintained that for Venezuela to attract the investments to rebuild its economy, "it will need to legitimize its government through an election." Rodríguez and her government know that, he told reporters traveling with him to St. Kitts and Nevis in late February.
But Rubio praised Rodríguez as well. "The new interim authorities, led by Delcy Rodríguez, have done things that eight or nine weeks ago would have been unimaginable," Rubio told Caribbean leaders in closed-door remarks.