Trump to meet with Venezuelan opposition leader Machado on Thursday: report
“Well, I understand she’s coming in next week sometime, and I look forward to saying hello to her,” President Trump said
President Trump will meet Thursday with Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, according to a news report Monday.
A White House official told The Hill news outlet that Trump will meet with Machado on Thursday. Last week, Trump said that he would be meeting with Machado this week.
“Well, I understand she’s coming in next week sometime, and I look forward to saying hello to her,” Trump told Fox News’s Sean Hannity in an interview last week.
Machado told Hannity last week that she would like to give the Nobel Peace Prize she won earlier this year to Trump. The president said in his interview that it would be “a great honor” to receive the prize from Machado.
After Machado said she would like to give Trump the prize, the Nobel Institute said that it "can neither be revoked, shared, nor transferred to others" and "once the announcement has been made, the decision stands for all time."
Prior to the interview with Hannity, Trump dismissed Machado as Venezuela's next leader, after the U.S. arrested Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on drug-trafficking and weapon charges, to which he 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.