WASHINGTON, January 10, 2026 – Total News Agency-TNA-U.S. President Donald Trump once again shook the international agenda by publicly referring to the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, confirming that he would maintain direct contact with her “on Tuesday or Wednesday” and suggesting he might receive her at the White House if she decides to symbolically offer him the award. The statements were made during an extensive press conference following a high-level meeting with executives from major oil companies, convened to advance an ambitious plan for private investment in Venezuela that, according to Trump, could reach $100 billion. In his speech, Trump combined geopolitical definitions, theatrical gestures, and personal comments, maintaining media focus even when he interrupted the meeting to observe the progress of the works on the future presidential ballroom. Trump avoided mentioning Machado by name and repeatedly described her as “the young lady who received the Nobel Peace Prize,” an award that the head of state himself considers unjustly denied to him. “There will be nothing like it in the world,” he promised, in a closing that once again mixed politics, spectacle, and personal ambitions. Between the Nobel he did not get and the ballroom he will have, Trump once again made it clear that his international agenda moves as much by geopolitical calculations as by symbolic impulses, with María Corina Machado and the Venezuelan crisis as the backdrop for a carefully staged scene in which he himself is the protagonist. Among the most commented moments, he interrupted his speech to look out the window at the progress of the works for the future White House ballroom, a $200 million project inspired by his Mar-a-Lago residence. Trump explained that the new ballroom, with a capacity for about 650 people and reinforced security systems, would solve, he said, the space limitations of the White House and allow for the reception of hundreds of entrepreneurs interested in investing in Venezuela. “She is going to come and give back to our country… to me, although I only represent the country,” he stated, insinuating that Machado could visit him in the coming days. Asked if that gesture would modify his position regarding a possible role for Machado in the Venezuelan government, Trump was ambiguous. Although he again ruled out the opposition leader taking on the political leadership of Venezuela at this time, by maintaining that she “does not have enough support or respect,” he acknowledged that he would have to speak with her and left open the possibility of some future participation. “I have to talk to her.”
