Maria Corina Machado backed the opposition's 2024 presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia to be president. But Donald Trump said the Nobel laureate doesn't have 'support or respect' in her country.

Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Corina Machado said Saturday, January 3, the “hour of freedom” had arrived for her country after the United States seized strongman Nicolas Maduro, but was criticized by the US president, who said she “doesn’t have the respect.”

At a press conference, Trump scotched any expectation that Machado should emerge as Venezuela’s new leader. “I think it would be very tough for her to be the leader. She doesn’t have the support within or the respect within the country,” Trump told a news conference. He indicated he could instead work with Maduro’s vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, saying “she’s essentially willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again.”