Venezuelan opposition leader María Machado visiting Trump at White House after offering to share Nobel with him

Washington — President Trump is hosting Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado for lunch Thursday, after Machado earlier this month offered to share her Nobel Prize with him for what she said was his “historic” action in Venezuela, the removal of Nicolás Maduro from power.

“I certainly would love to be able to personally tell him that we believe — the Venezuelan people, because this is a prize of the Venezuelan people — certainly want to, to give it to him and share it with him,” Machado told Fox News host Sean Hannity. “What he has done is historic. It’s a huge step towards a democratic transition.”

But the Trump administration has said little about a democratic transition in Venezuela. The country’s interim president is Delcy Rodríguez, who was Maduro’s vice president. Mr. Trump spoke Wednesday with Rodríguez, calling her a “terrific person.

Mr. Trump has not endorsed Machado to be Venezuela’s next president, as some thought he might after Maduro’s arrest, despite the recognition she’s received for her efforts to restore democracy to the struggling country. He has said he thinks it would be “tough” for Machado to lead Venezuela because “she doesn’t have the support within — or the respect within — the country.” 

But Machado, asked in a recent interview by “CBS Evening News” anchor Tony Dokoupil if she believes she is the right person to lead Venezuela in the first chapter of its post-Maduro future, said that “the people of Venezuela have already chosen,” adding that her coalition is “ready and willing to serve our people, as we have been mandated.”

After Machado’s offer to share the prize with the president, Norwegian Nobel Committee Chair Jørgen Watne Frydnes said it cannot be shared or transferred. Machado was awarded the prize for being a “key, unifying figure in a political opposition that was once deeply divided — an opposition that found common ground in the demand for free elections and representative government.” 

On Thursday morning, the Pentagon confirmed the seizure of yet another oil tanker in the Caribbean, at least the sixth such seizure of a tanker carrying Venezuelan oil.

The U.S. officially began selling Venezuelan oil this week. The first U.S. sale of Venezuelan oil, valued at $500 million, has been completed, an administration official said Wednesday. Mr. Trump says the U.S. will be selling up to 50 million barrels of Venezuelan oil, if not more.