Venezuelan Opposition Leader Maria Machado broke with President Donald Trump on Thursday regarding the White House’s unprecedented Venezuela oil deal, and critics were quick to ridicule her given her history of showering the president with praise.
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“Her strategy of cheerleading Trump’s aggression in Venezuela and appeasing him was wrongheaded,” argued independent journalist Aaron Rupar in a social media post on X Thursday night.
Last week, the Trump administration revealed that a deal had been brokered with the Venezuelan government to acquire rights to the South American nation’s untapped oil reserves for a century. The deal saw criticism from a number of conservative figures and lawmakers, and on Thursday, Machado joined in publicly scrutinizing the arrangement, while also “being careful not to attack Trump,” as noted by Wall Street Journal reporter Vera Bergengruen.
Machado was viciously mocked back in January for “groveling” to Trump in the wake of the U.S. operation to kidnap Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. She was also criticized for awarding her Nobel Peace Prize to Trump in what critics saw as an attempt to win the president’s endorsement as Venezuela’s new leader.
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Trump ultimately never endorsed Machado to take the helm of the Venezuelan government, saying she didn’t have the “support or respect” among Venezuelans to lead the country, and last week, appeared to burn Machado again by reaching an arrangement with Venezuela’s current government.
“Let this be the final lesson for anyone who thinks Trump is their friend,” wrote Hal Stewart, former congressional candidate, podcast host and U.S. Navy veteran.
Independent journalist Glenn Greenwald issued Machado a similarly brutal rebuke.
“I love how the pro-war western exiles from both Venezuela and Iran had to quickly realize that Trump had absolutely no interest in ‘freeing’ their countries or whatever and that the US doesn’t fight wars to liberate people: only to steal their oil and install puppet regimes,” Greenwald wrote.
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Let this be the final lesson for anyone who thinks trump is their friend. https://t.co/pKRFso2rGA
— Hal_For_NY__ (@HalforNY__) September 3, 2026
