White House insiders revealed Sunday night that a major element of the United States’ hostile takeover of Venezuela may have been motivated entirely by a personal grudge held by President Donald Trump over what he’s characterized as a snub for a prestigious award.
In the wake of the unprecedented U.S. attack on and takeover of Venezuela Saturday, Trump took some conservative figures by surprise after rejecting the idea of Venezuelan politician Maria Machado leading the country in the absence of President Nicholas Maduro, who was kidnapped and taken to New York to stand trial on drug-trafficking charges.
A leader of the opposition party in Venezuela, Machado has been celebrated by conservative figures as the clear successor to Maduro, but on Saturday Trump dismissed the idea and argued that she “doesn’t have the support or respect within the country.” Despite his public comments, however, Trump’s actual motivation was far more petty, two White House insiders revealed to The Washington Post Sunday night.
“Two people close to the White House said the president’s lack of interest in boosting Machado, despite her recent efforts to flatter Trump, stemmed from her decision to accept the Nobel Peace Prize, an award the president has openly coveted,” a report from the Post reads.
“Although Machado ultimately said she was dedicating the award to Trump, her acceptance of the prize was an ‘ultimate sin,’ said one of the people.”
Trump lobbied hard for the Nobel Peace Prize last fall, but ultimately lost out to Machado, who was given the prestigious award in October. While Machado has championed the Trump administration for its deadly boat strikes in the Caribbean and its military threats against her own nation, one of the White House insiders said her acceptance of the award was a bridge too far for Trump.
“If she had turned it down and said, ‘I can’t accept it because it’s Donald Trump’s,’ she’d be the president of Venezuela today,” the insider told the Post.
Machado won the Nobel Peace Prize for what the Norwegian Nobel Committee described as her “tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela.” She’s drawn scrutiny, however, for her alignment with right-leaning governments, her support for U.S. sanctions on her own country, and promoting false or unverified claims, including assertions that the Palestinian militant group Hamas operates in the country.
María Corina Machado won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2025 for her tireless work promoting democratic rights in Venezuela and her efforts to achieve a peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy. This recognition highlights her significant role in advocating for freedom and democracy in her country.
Award Details:
• Recipient: María Corina Machado
• Year: 2025
• Reason for Award: Recognized for her "tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy."
Background on Machado:
• Born: October 7, 1967, in Caracas, Venezuela.
• Political Career: Co-founded the organization Súmate to promote free elections.
• Elected to the National Assembly in 2010 but was expelled in 2014.
• Led the opposition party Vente Venezuela.
•Supported Edmundo González in the 2024 presidential election after being barred from running herself.
Significance of the Award:
• The Nobel Committee highlighted the importance of democracy and the link between democratic rights and peace.
• Machado's efforts have been pivotal in uniting the Venezuelan opposition and advocating for democratic reforms amidst a backdrop of authoritarianism under Nicolás Maduro.
Machado's recognition as a Nobel laureate underscores her role as a prominent figure in the fight for democracy in Venezuela.
In a lengthy press conference Saturday detailing the U.S. military’s capture of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro, President Donald Trump confirmed, with stunning frankness, the classic leftist critique of American foreign policy: that, at least for as long as he’s in power, it’s all about the oil.
Over the past few months, Trump and his aides had characterized their pressure campaign against Maduro’s regime as a war on “narco-terrorism” and a fight to restore democratic rule. But following Maduro’s extraction in a complex military and intelligence operation, the U.S. president was clear about its true motive.
“We’re going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper, and judicious transition,” he said, adding, “We can’t take a chance that somebody else takes over Venezuela that doesn’t have the good of the Venezuelan people in mind.” Then came the kicker: “We’re going to have our very large United States oil companies, the biggest anywhere in the world, go in” and spend billions of dollars fixing the energy infrastructure that they developed decades ago, until socialist regimes nationalized their wells, then wrecked them. The wealth resulting from this grab-back will benefit the Venezuelan people, he said, but he noted that much of it will reimburse America’s oil companies.
Finally, Trump said, U.S. troops will be sent to enforce Big Oil’s rule if necessary. “They always say ‘boots on the ground’—we’re not afraid of boots on the ground,” he said. “We had boots on the ground last night,” as part of the operation to extract Maduro. He said the military was poised to go in again if needed.
There’s a lengthy history, starting in the Cold War, of the U.S. military and the CIA co-opting or overthrowing Central and South American governments—including in Guatemala, Brazil, Ecuador, the Dominican Republic, and Chile, as well as several attempts to do so in Cuba—to bolster the interests of U.S. corporations, including United Fruit, IT&T, and various oil companies.
But rarely have the presidents who ordered these interventions been so blatant about the primary motive. Instead, at least in public, they spoke of fighting communism or upholding democracy, even when the enemies weren’t really communist and their allies weren’t at all democratic.
But Trump was up-front about his reasons, and repeatedly so. Several times during his press conference, he talked of bringing in big U.S. oil companies to regain their former assets. (In fact, though, American firms never owned the land where they drilled for Venezuela’s oil riches, and, as in many other countries, the interplay between foreign exploiters and local nationalizers was more complex than Trump’s narrative suggests.) And he also discussed restoring “American dominance in the Western Hemisphere”—a policy that his recently issued National Security Strategy called the “Trump corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine. “We are reasserting American power in a very powerful way in our home region,” he said—not to protect democracy but for its own sake.
Maduro and his wife were captured, then indicted by the U.S. attorney in New York, on charges of drug trafficking. Trump, however, all but admitted that this wasn’t the real purpose of the elaborate operation. Just a month ago, while officers were planning the attack on Venezuela, Trump pardoned former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, who had been convicted of drug trafficking. Asked about this at Saturday’s news conference, Trump said he had issued the pardon because Hernández, who had supported Trump, had been “treated unfairly” by former President Joe Biden.
As for democracy, Trump was asked whether he would support María Corina Machado, the Nobel Prize–winning leader of Venezuela’s opposition movement, to lead a new government—or even whether he had spoken with her. Trump answered no to both questions. “It would be very tough for her to be the leader,” he said in a dismissive tone. “She doesn’t have the respect in the country.” Nor did he even mention Edmundo González, who was elected Venezuela’s president in 2024 and fled to safe exile in Spain after Maduro stole the election.
Earlier on Saturday, in an interview on Fox News, Trump acted as if he’d barely thought about Machado or González. “I mean, I don’t know about what kind of an election that was,” he said, referring to the 2024 contest. Meanwhile, he said, “they have a vice president, you know.”
Later, during the press conference, Trump acknowledged that the Venezuelan vice president, Delcy Rodríguez—who, by law, has now been sworn in as president—had been handpicked by Maduro. He noted that Secretary of State Marco Rubio is now “working with” Rodríguez, who is “willing to do what’s necessary to make Venezuela great again.”
Venezuelan law requires an ascending vice president to call for new elections, but this doesn’t seem in the offing. Asked who precisely is going to “run” Venezuela, Trump replied, “We’re designating various people. … It’s largely going to be the people standing right behind me”—referring to Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Dan Caine. “Venezuela has a lot of bad people,” Trump added. “We’re not going to take a chance that one of those people take over from Maduro.”
Asked how long this transition will take, Trump said he would “like to do it quickly” but that rebuilding the country’s oil infrastructure “takes a period of time.”
Still, it remains unclear how America really will “run” Venezuela, a country of 28.5 million, roughly the size of Texas or California. Its military officers, most of whom were loyal to Maduro, are still in place, as are its Cabinet ministers and bureaucrats. Trump said that many of them will soon be switching sides. Maybe, maybe not. There are also more than 20,000 Cubans in Venezuela, many of them military and intelligence officers, many others health care workers, all of them providing services in exchange for Venezuelan oil. Will they be leaving? Will power struggles break out? Will the military simply adapt to Washington’s demands in exchange for guarantees to stay in power?
Then there are broader questions. The whole world is watching not just this operation—an impressive tactical display of U.S. military power—but what happens next. Trump’s unabashedly imperial rationale for the action may inspire Russian President Vladimir Putin to double down on his claims of rightful dominance over Ukraine—and Chinese President Xi Jinping to feel more confident in his claims over Taiwan. At the same time, antiregime activists in Iran may feel emboldened, especially since Trump said, just the other day, that he stands “locked and loaded” to punish Tehran’s leaders if they killed protesters.
Finally, there is Cuba. In his press conference, Trump noted similarities between Cuba and Venezuela. Both countries have been wrecked by socialist dictators, and “we want to help the people in Cuba.” Rubio, a Cuban American who has avidly supported the anti-Castro movement in Florida (a state he once represented as a senator), added, “If I lived in Havana and worked in the government, I’d be concerned.”
Meanwhile, the U.S. aircraft carrier and its supporting armada, which had mobilized off Venezuela’s shore before the operation, remain deployed and on high alert. “We’re ready to stage a second and much larger attack if we need to do so,” Trump said.
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