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This article is based on a meeting that occurred between Maria Machado, the opposition of Iterum President of Venezuela, Delcy Rodriguez. Machado has recently won the Nobel peace prize for the year of 2025. She weaponized United States President Donald Trump’s desire of that award to make an attempt to have Trumps “blessing” of being the next leader of Venezuela, this attempt was made after President Trump deliberately argued against Machado being leader. Machado gave the award to President Trump with kind words such as “Personal Symbol of Gratitude on behalf of the Venezuelan People.” In an attempt to sway his opinion. Machado also met with many senators to discuss the current Venezuelan situation. She mentioned many times that Rodriguez is just another Maduro and should be treated the same.
This exchange did not surprise me at all. In a way if Machado gets her way of being the next leader, which its looking like its very possible, then it just proves that she is a utilizer of nepotism and the perfect representation of the phrase “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” She knows that Trump is more egotistical in nature than most presidents so it would make perfect sense that she would offer him an award he’s been wanting for his entire political career, in exchange for a forceful placement of leadership in Venezuela.
I think in terms of the interests of both Trump and Machado as stakeholders there is a very clear win-win situation. We’ve learned from Trump’s time in office that he isn’t afraid to act without consent from Congress. If Trump does place Machado in power then he would be responsible for the ridding of socialism in Venezuela as Machado belongs to a pro-democratic party making an easier alliance to occur and increasing the chances of obtaining their oil. While it’s also a win for Machado because she gets what she wants in the end which is power in her own regime. The only three situations I believe can really stop this from happening is either Rodriguez doesn’t give up her power cleanly, which is likely, Trump doesn’t want to put boots on ground to make a forceful switch, or the Venezuelan people reject her and throw her out before she can get up and running.
What Machado is doing in this situation can be classified as the term bandwagoning, since although shes not a statural entity herself, she represents her future of Venezuela and she is already aligning her idea of Venezuela with Trump in order to strive for good relation with the superpower in the future. I believe that if Trump also takes credit for eliminating another socialist regime in America’s sphere of influence, his legitimacy could increase in the eyes of his own party again after the terrible event and PR nightmare for the Trump administration that was the ICE protester deaths and skirmishes.