Opposition leaders told Fox News they were “grateful” for Trump’s “courageous vision” after Maduro’s abduction.
Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Colina Machado said she has not spoken to President Donald Trump since October of last year, even though she wholeheartedly praises the regime’s brazen military actions in Venezuela.
In a brief interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News’ Hannity Show, the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize winner said he wanted to “personally” thank the president for the abduction of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro.
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“I spoke with President Trump on October 10, the same day the award was announced. We haven’t spoken since then,” Machado said. “But I want to say on behalf of the Venezuelan people how grateful we are for his courageous vision and the historic actions he took against this narco-terrorist regime, dismantling this structure and bringing Mr. Maduro to justice.”
The right-wing politician’s comments came after President Trump told reporters on Sunday that Machado “has no respect” for leading Venezuela or for the support of his people.
Former Venezuelan vice president Delcy Rodriguez was then sworn in to lead the country on an interim basis.
“I think it would be very difficult for her to lead,” Trump said of Machado. “She is not supported or respected in the country. She is a very nice woman, but she is not respected.”
In 2023, Machado won the Venezuelan opposition presidential primary with 93% of the vote. However, she was barred from running and forced to go into hiding for more than a year, defying a travel ban, to receive the Nobel Peace Prize in Norway.
Machado left the capital Oslo in December, but his current whereabouts are unknown.
The opposition leader told Hannity he intended to return to Venezuela “as soon as possible.”
“A big step for humanity”
Machado, a hard-right right-winger who has aligned himself with the Trump administration’s hawks, sparked international controversy when he first dedicated the award to Trump in October.
Trump had coveted the Nobel Peace Prize for months, publicly campaigning for “ending seven wars.”
“I dedicated this song to President Trump because I believed at the time that he deserved it,” Machado told Hannity. Now that President Maduro has stepped down, “he has proven to the world his true intentions.”
“This is not only a big step for the Venezuelan people and their future, but also for humanity, freedom and human dignity,” she added.
The White House suggested on Sunday that it was not seeking regime change in Venezuela, but rather an amenable government that would allow U.S. companies to exploit the country’s vast oil reserves.
President Trump previously said he would “run” Venezuela as “Big American oil companies” exploited the country’s resources.
Machado seemed to welcome the idea, telling Hannity that Venezuela would turn into an “energy hub” for the United States.
“We will bring the rule of law, open markets and provide security for investment,” Machado said.
Various international experts and analysts have said that President Maduro’s abduction was an attack by the United States that circumvented not only international law but also U.S. political boundaries.
Sultan Barakat, a senior professor at the School of Public Policy at Qatar’s Hamad bin Khalifa University, told Al Jazeera that this is part of a “new era of imperialism” for the United States, centered on oil and strategic interests, and risks normalizing similar actions by other countries.
Trump “…is ignoring international law. He’s ignoring Venezuelan law… and he doesn’t seem to care what the Venezuelan people actually think and what they want,” Barakat said.
Trump-era policies and rhetoric will “mutate” American politics, with trends that will distort the existing international order, he added, as nationalism strengthens and Christianity becomes more closely intertwined with governance.
