President Trump is scheduled to meet with Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado this Thursday (15th), The Hill reported on Monday (12th).

A White House official told The Hill that President Trump would meet with Machado on Thursday. Last week, President Trump had stated that he would meet with Machado this week.

In an interview with Sean Hannity of Fox News last week, President Trump said, "I heard she's planning to visit sometime next week. I look forward to meeting her and saying hello."

Last week, representative Machado told Hannity that she would like to present President Trump with the Nobel Peace Prize she received earlier this year. President Trump stated in the interview that receiving the award from representative Machado would be "a great honor."

Following Machado's announcement that she wished to present the award to Trump, the Nobel Institute, the working body that supports the Norwegian Nobel Committee in the process of reviewing and selecting Nobel Peace Prize candidates, stated that "the awarding of the prize cannot be revoked, shared, or transferred to another person" and that "once the award announcement has been made, the decision is permanently valid."

Prior to the interview with Hannity, President Trump stated that he would not recognize Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro as the next leader after his arrest on charges of drug and arms trafficking.

"It will be very difficult for her to become the leader," Trump said at a press conference in Mar-a-Lago on the 3rd, the day of Maduro's arrest. "She does not have support or respect domestically. She is a good woman, but she is not respected."

The Venezuelan government is currently being run by interim president Delcy Rodríguez.

US NNP=Sung Ku Hong, Editor-in-Chief / Special Correspondent for this newspaper NNP info@newsandpost.com