Trump eyes historic meeting with Venezuela's Delcy Rodríguez next week

Antonio María Delgado, Miami Herald on Sep 18, 2026

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President Donald Trump is making plans to meet Venezuela’s interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York as early as next week, a potentially significant encounter after months of rapidly expanding cooperation between Washington and Caracas, according to the Axios news site.

The meeting has not been finalized, but Trump wants to make room in his schedule for a sit-down with Rodríguez, possibly as early as Tuesday, Axios reported Thursday, citing sources familiar with the discussions.

If it takes place, it would be the first face-to-face meeting between Trump and Rodríguez and would underscore the dramatic transformation in relations between the two countries since U.S. forces captured Nicolás Maduro in Caracas on Jan. 3 and brought him to the United States to face federal narcoterrorism charges.

Trump himself opened the door to a meeting over the weekend. Asked aboard Air Force One on Sunday whether he planned to meet Rodríguez during the UN gathering, the president replied, “I may be, I may be.”

Neither the White House nor the Venezuelan government has formally announced a meeting, and Axios quoted a senior administration official cautioning that the plans remain fluid.

“Nothing is finalized,” the official told Axios. “This is up to the president.”

Trump is scheduled to be in New York for the UN General Assembly and is also expected to meet with Persian Gulf leaders to discuss the war in Iran. But people familiar with his thinking told Axios that Venezuela remains a major foreign-policy priority and that Trump wants to find time for Rodríguez.

“Iran is tough, but Venezuela is without a doubt the president’s top success and Delcy is a key to that,” a Trump adviser told Axios. “Unless something goes really wrong, the president wants to make time.”

A meeting would represent another step in the rapprochement between Washington and Caracas that has unfolded since Maduro’s capture and Rodríguez’s assumption of power.

Rodríguez, Maduro’s former vice president and a longtime figure in Venezuela’s socialist government, has worked with the Trump administration and Secretary of State Marco Rubio as the two governments have moved to restore relations after years of hostility.

The growing relationship has also produced a major agreement opening Venezuela’s vast petroleum resources to U.S. participation, making energy cooperation one of the most visible elements of the new relationship.

But Trump’s willingness to embrace Rodríguez has generated unease among some Venezuelan exiles in South Florida and supporters of opposition leader María Corina Machado, who have questioned why Washington has developed such a close relationship with a government headed by one of Maduro’s most powerful former allies.

Rodríguez rose through the governments of Hugo Chávez and Maduro and became one of the most influential officials in the political system that Washington spent years sanctioning and seeking to isolate.

Axios reported that some Venezuelan exiles have grown increasingly frustrated that neither Trump nor Rubio has publicly pressed for new elections as part of the emerging relationship with Caracas.

Tensions with Machado’s supporters also increased after administration officials criticized the exiled opposition leader when she attempted to return to Venezuela following the devastating earthquakes in June.

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