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Trump Weighs Landmark Meeting With Venezuela's Delcy Rodriguez at UN Assembly
ReTrump Weighs Landmark Meeting With Venezuela's Delcy Rodriguez at UN Assembly
President Donald Trump is considering a high-stakes sit-down with Venezuela's interim leader Delcy Rodriguez on the margins of the UN General Assembly, a meeting that could reshape Washington's relationship with Caracas while stirring backlash among Venezuelan exiles in South Florida.
President Donald Trump is weighing a landmark meeting with Venezuela's interim leader, Delcy Rodriguez, that could take place within days on the margins of his upcoming trip to New York for the United Nations General Assembly, according to people familiar with the planning. Tuesday has emerged as a possible date for adding Rodriguez to a schedule that already includes talks with Gulf leaders on the Iran war.
The encounter would carry political hazards on both sides of the border. A Manhattan meeting would unfold not far from the detention facility holding Nicolas Maduro, Rodriguez's former political partner turned prisoner, who has been held since American forces seized him from Caracas in a January raid Trump personally authorized. Maduro now faces narco-terrorism charges.
Rodriguez stepped into the power vacuum left behind after Maduro's capture and has since built a working relationship with Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, most notably through a sweeping oil agreement between the two governments that has drawn its own scrutiny. One Trump adviser framed the relationship as central to the administration's foreign policy wins, saying, «Iran is tough, but Venezuela is without a doubt the president's top success, and Delcy is a key to that.»
A senior administration official was more cautious, noting that nothing is locked in yet and that the final call rests entirely with the president. The official also dismissed concerns that the meeting could damage Rodriguez politically at home. «The fact is POTUS loves Delcy because she's delivering and she's leading,» the official said.
Not everyone is pleased with the partnership. Venezuelan exiles concentrated in South Florida, a politically vocal bloc, have grown increasingly angry watching Washington embrace someone they view as cut from the same socialist cloth as Maduro. Both Rodriguez and Maduro climbed to power under the late Hugo Chavez. Neither Trump nor Rubio has demanded that Venezuela hold elections, a notable silence given how relentlessly they once portrayed Maduro as a dictator who stole his own vote.
Backers of exiled opposition figure Maria Corina Machado, who won the Nobel Peace Prize, share some of that frustration. They remain stung by administration pushback when she tried to return home after June's earthquakes. Venezuelan public opinion polling shows both Rodriguez and Trump struggling with weak approval, while Machado sits on top, though her own support has started slipping.
Some people close to Trump privately worry that being seen shaking his hand could brand Rodriguez a U.S. puppet in the eyes of her own citizens. Yet political operatives in Florida say voters heading into the midterms are far more consumed by pain at the pump from the Iran conflict and the administration's crackdown on immigration than by anything happening with Venezuelan democracy. That suggests whatever backlash follows a Rodriguez meeting may stay confined largely to the exile community rather than spilling into the broader campaign.
The potential meeting comes as the administration balances its foreign policy priorities against domestic political pressures. The oil agreement between Washington and Caracas has already drawn scrutiny, and a face-to-face encounter would elevate the relationship to a new level. For now, the White House has not confirmed any schedule change, and the decision remains with the president.
