Name: Venezuela's Machado gives Trump her Nobel Peace Prize medal
Uploaded: 2026-01-16T16:53:03.000Z
Duration: 8 min 35 s
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I presented the President of the United States the medal of the Nobel Peace Prize, and

200 years ago, General Lafayette gave Simon Bolivar a medal with George Washington face.

Benito Bolivar, since then, kept that medal for the rest of his life.

We don't know yet what the President's reaction was to that gift.

We should note the Nobel Committee has made clear the Peace Prize cannot be shared or transferred after it is awarded by the Nobel Committee.

The meeting comes as the White House says Trump stands by his assertion that Machado does not have the support necessary to lead Venezuela.

Just yesterday, the President called Venezuela's acting president, Delsey Rodriguez, of course, Nicolas Maduro's former vice president, a terrific person.

Following a phone call, White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt says the current Venezuelan government has been extremely cooperative.

Secretary Rubio and the administration have been in constant communication with Ms.

Rodriguez and other members of the interim government in Venezuela.

They have thus far met all of the demands and requests of the United States and of the president.

In Caracas, Delsey Rodriguez delivered her State of the Union, State of the Nation address.

She urged her country to wage a diplomatic battle with the U.S.

saying, quote, if I ever have to go to Washington as acting president, I will do so standing tall, walking, and

Kristen Holmes is live at the White House.

Kristen, is it clear to you what the next steps are for Venezuela?

If Trump is still saying Machado doesn't have the support and that he likes Delsey Rodriguez, seems like they're happy with the status quo for now.

I mean, we know one of the things that President Trump and the administration was trying to focus on was stability in the administration in Venezuela.

That's part of the reason that they kind of turned their focus to Rodriguez after the capture, actually

before the capture of Maduro, for this idea that, one, they could have her in place and then put the screws to her.

We know that they've kept the armada that is in the Caribbean with essentially weapons pointed at Venezuela just off the coast.

We know that we've kept sanctions, or at least some of them, in place.

These are all forms of negotiating tactics to put the screws to Rodriguez, to get her to do what the United States wants.

Now, you heard Caroline Levitt in the briefing today.

She would not give any sort of a timeline on elections or a shift to democracy in Venezuela.

So it's really unclear what this looks like in terms of steps.

All we really know right now is this step or phase one, which is this kind of stability period where you see President Trump, the United States trying to rebuild the oil infrastructure and continue to use basically the same regime.

Maduro is gone, but Rodriguez is essentially a part of Maduro.

She was his vice president, but to put an enormous amount of pressure on.

And Rodriguez seems to be playing ball with the White House in a way that Maduro was not willing to.

So right now it does seem as though they are happy with the status quo.

It's quite a change given most of the government remains from the Maduro regime.

Richard Haass is President emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations.

He's also the author of the Substack newsletter Home and Away.

Given your long history in diplomacy, is there any precedent or anything close to a winner of a prize, a Nobel Prize or similar, feeling pressure to give it to the US President to Curry favorite I think that's a rhetorical question, Jim.

It was quite a gesture on her part and I think it's her attempt to bring the president over.

Given the conversation you just had to where he sees a meaningful role for the political opposition in Venezuela.

Is it clear to you that he sees a meaningful role?

Because listening to Caroline Levitt today from the White House podium, she repeated that Trump doesn't quite believe Machado has the support.

They seem to be prioritizing stability of oil supplies getting out of there and there's no timeline for elections.

Is I mean, is the status quo going to stick around for a while?

This administration, when you think about it, is not about promoting democracy.

I also think they have a legitimate concern that if they try to interject Mrs.

Machado and basically say she has to be the next leader or you need to have elections right away that could trigger civil conflict.

You have a lot of guns and a lot of small groups running around.

And my guess is they'd see her as a threat.

So I think the real question to me is whether the president opens up a middle ground between the status quo working with essentially the old regime minus Maduro and something that would try to usher in democracy quickly and whether he's willing to open up some type of a gradual process and we'll See, you've written in your recent piece that the US doesn't just lack the means to run Venezuela, as the President claims to be doing right now, but

Well, to run a country, you've got to have a real physical presence, military presence.

You got to be there politically on the ground, economically.

I mean, think about it, what we did in Japan and Germany after World War II, more recently, what we tried to do in places like Iraq, Afghanistan, Panama, nation building, the idea of shepherding a country through a political transition, you don't do that from offshore, you don't do that by telephone.

You've got to rebuild institutions, you've got to lead by the hour.

And I just don't see this administration making that investment.

A lot of its base would be violently opposed to that type of a foreign or international commitment.

So again, the President wants the benefits of that kind of a policy without the costs.

And it's just life doesn't work that way.

You cite, of course, previous examples of failed US Efforts at nation building, Afghanistan and Iraq.

It seems like the administration's making the argument that they, for instance, are not making the mistake that the US did in Iraq of, you know, taking apart all the institutions there.

De baathification, all that stuff you're very familiar with.

I mean, is there any wisdom in that argument?

We disbanded the military, we disbanded all the institutions.

This administration now is going to the other extreme.

Rather than nation building, this is just a simple leadership change.

And what they're hoping is this is enough.

But as you heard say from the leaders of some of the oil companies, Jim, this is not a recipe for long term stability.

And if you want American companies to make long term investments, you've got to give them more confidence.

That's why I think what the administration is doing might be okay for now, but

The examples that you'll hear from some of the administration supporters, setting aside Iraq and Afghanistan are places like Panama or Granada, let's be frank, much smaller than Venezuela.

But they'll say, well, look what we did there.

We had unique relations in places like Panama because of the Canal.

We had an American serviceman there killed and so forth.

So because it worked, there is not an argument it will work here.

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Venezuela's Machado gives Trump her Nobel Peace Prize medal

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