Donald Trump has outright rejected the idea of collaborating with Venezuelan opposition figure Maria Corina Machado following the capture of the country’s dictator, Nicolás Maduro.

The former U.S. President argued that Machado, who outshined him in last year’s Nobel Peace Prize race, lacks sufficient backing within Venezuela to effectively govern. 

Though Machado, the leader of the Vente Venezuela Party, is often regarded as Maduro’s most formidable challenger, Trump revealed to reporters that he has not made any contact with her.

“She lacks both the internal support and the respect needed in the country,” he remarked.

This stance comes in spite of Machado expressing her endorsement for U.S. initiatives aimed at curbing alleged drug trafficking from Venezuela, and after dedicating her Nobel win to Trump and her fellow Venezuelans.

Machado, who is hugely popular among Venezuelan voters, also referred to Trump’s capture of Maduro as ‘the hour of freedom’ for her people in an X post shared shortly after the shock abduction.  

Her supporters, including Venezuelan businessman and former board member of the state oil company PDVSA, Pedro Burelli, have hit back at Trump’s comments.    

Machado, ‘is the most respected politician in the country,’ Burelli wrote on X. ‘Venezuela is broke and needy, but it is not about to surrender to absurd whims.’

Donald Trump has dismissed the prospect of working with Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado (pictured) after capturing the country’s dictator, Nicolás Maduro

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is pictured after his shock capture from Caracas on Friday night in a photo shared by President Donald Trump on his Truth Social website 

The day after capturing Maduro, Trump said the dictator’s Vice President Delcy Rodriguez would be the new Venezuelan leader. 

He said she had been ‘sworn in’ as president and was ‘willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again’. 

But Rodriguez refused to comply, saying Maduro remained the country’s only president. Trump responded by saying the US would now run Venezuela. 

The saga began when US troops captured Maduro and his wife from Caracas in the early hours of Saturday Friday before transporting them to New York on drug trafficking charges.  

A white FBI Boeing 757 landed at Stewart Air National Guard Base in upstate New York after 4:30pm Saturday afternoon. Cops subsequently boarded the plane.

Around 30 minutes later, several figures including Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores flanked by a group of officials could be seen slowly disembarking the aircraft. 

It is believed the couple were first taken to Puerto Rico, where another video showed them being escorted onto a different US military plane earlier in the day.   

Trump updates Americans on his capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro at Mar-a-Lago on Saturday afternoon, flanked by White House cabinet members including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth

The day after capturing Maduro, Trump said the dictator’s Vice President Delcy Rodriguez (pictured) would be the new Venezuelan leader

Shot from several hundred yards away, the footage shared by Puerto Rican broadcaster NotiCentro follows a huddle of people boarding a plane on the runway at Ramey Base, a former US Air Force strip at Rafael Hernandez International Airport.

The mayor of Aguadilla, Julio Roldan, also wrote on social media that the Venezuelan dictator had been ‘transferred’ through the city, which is located on the north-western coast of Puerto Rico, around 600 miles north of Caracas. 

‘Aguadilla was the first American jurisdiction where they transferred the detainee Nicolás Maduro,’ Roldan said Saturday. 

‘An additional sample of geopolitical value Aguadilla has for our common defense.’

After his capture by the US Army’s elite Delta Force unit, Maduro and his wife were flown by helicopter to the USS Iwo Jima warship. 

They are expected to be held in Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center, which is famous for its squalid conditions and has also housed Luigi Mangione and Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs. 

Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado addresses supporters at a protest against President Nicolas Maduro in Caracas, Venezuela, Jan. 9, 2025

Trump said the United States would govern Venezuela indefinitely in the meantime. 

‘We’re going to run the country until as such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition,’ he told reporters in the wake of the shock capture. 

Trump offered little further detail on the logistics of running Venezuela, which has a population of 30 million, but suggested the country’s vast oil reserves would be used to fund its revival. 

Maduro’s arrest came after US forces struck Caracas amid accusations from Trump that Venezuela has been flooding the US with drugs and gang members.    

Trump alleged that Maduro is the leader of the Cartel de los Soles (Cartel of the Suns) drug trafficking operation.

Trump said Saturday that he had not briefed Congress of his plans to snatch Maduro, claiming that had he done so, the news would have ‘leaked’ and potentially helped the Venezuelan leader to evade capture.