US President Donald Trump on September 5 declined to say outright whether he supports Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado's plans to return home, praising the Nobel Peace Prize laureate instead and predicting a good outcome, days after she described her return as "urgent" in a New York Post column.

Asked at the White House by journalist David Alandete whether he explicitly backed her intention to go back to Venezuela, Trump pointed to Machado's decision earlier this year to present him with her Nobel medal.

"Well, I'll say one thing: she is an excellent woman. She gave me her Nobel Prize because she knew I had earned it, and she is an excellent woman, and everything is going to turn out fine," Trump told reporters.

Machado has been outside Venezuela since December 2025, when she left clandestinely to attend the Nobel ceremony in Oslo. Her team says she has tried at least seven times to re-enter the country, including three failed attempts by sea and air from Panama on September 21.

In an opinion piece in the New York Post, Machado said the January 3 US operation that captured former president Nicolás Maduro had given both countries a chance to dismantle drug cartels, curb the influence of Cuba, Russia, Iran and China, and forge an energy partnership. She urged that a date for presidential elections be set within the next year, together with a roadmap of reforms to ensure the vote is free and fair.

"My duty is to accompany our people and channel growing social tensions peacefully," she wrote, adding that she intended to travel the country to strengthen civic organisation and build a national agreement between civilians and the military.

Machado argued that Venezuela could pump well over 5mn barrels per day with some $200bn in investment, but said capital on that scale required contracts of 20 to 30 years binding successive governments, and a stable legal framework that only an elected administration could guarantee. "A legitimately elected government can provide that certainty without costing American taxpayers a dollar," she wrote.

She also pointed to Secretary of State Marco Rubio's call for free elections. "We agree. Venezuelans need to know when," Machado wrote.

Washington has worked primarily with interim President Delcy Rodríguez, Maduro's former deputy, since his ouster. Shortly after the operation, Trump said Machado lacked the support or respect within the country to lead it, leaving much of the Chavista leadership in place, which has since proved amenable to US requests to open the country's oil and mineral resources to American investors. Trump has in turn lavished praise on Rodríguez, calling her a "terrific person" who is "doing a great job."

The firebrand opposition leader handed Trump her Nobel medal during a White House lunch on January 15, a move Trump called "a wonderful gesture of mutual respect." The Norwegian Nobel Committee has said the laureate title cannot be revoked, shared or transferred.

Ties between Washington and Caracas further deepened on August 28, when Trump announced an oil agreement giving a US-backed operator rights to develop 17 oilfields holding an estimated 65bn barrels, about a fifth of Venezuela's proven reserves. The US administration said the deal would bring more than $100bn in investment.

On September 2, Trump sided with Rodríguez in rejecting an election timetable. "I just don't think they're ready yet," he said. Venezuela's constitution limits a vice president's tenure as acting head of state to 180 days, a period that has already lapsed.

Trump and Rodríguez met on September 22 on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, their first encounter since Maduro's capture. Rodríguez hailed it as "a historic meeting" focused on energy, mining and security cooperation.

The same day, Curaçao's civil aviation authority refused landing permission to a private plane carrying Machado after what its director called a "request from higher up.” A separate attempt to land in Aruba also failed. Axios reported in July that the Trump administration was officially neutral on Machado's return, but that her repeated attempts had irritated senior White House officials.

The Trump administration has outlined a three-phase plan for Venezuela's transition and maintains that its approach prioritises regional security and energy stability while laying the groundwork for a return to democracy. Meanwhile, Rubio said last week that Washington was working with Venezuela's opposition-controlled 2015 National Assembly to create conditions for "free and fair elections as soon as possible.”

Thousands of Machado supporters rallied across Venezuela in late September to demand a 2027 election timetable and guarantees for her safe return. US-brokered talks between the interim government and the opposition, which have so far yielded a deal to replace all 32 Supreme Court justices and a partial easing of restrictions, are due to resume in October.