this post was submitted on 16 Jan 2026
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Look at it from her side. She can "give" this narcissistic her award (which she actually can't) and the guy who holds the strings will be pleased and she gets her country back, peacefully.
That's a great deal for her and Venezuela overall. She is playing him. It's tactful and tactical. And he's a pathetic toddler who only responds to praise and participation awards - what a sad sad sad person to have as leader. I hope MAGA sees how pathetic this is but I know they won't.
its a little naive if anything, hes not going to give anything back. he just takes more if anything. hes a void.
Her success in her mission was always a long shot. Flattery can work on him so it makes sense for her to try
She already succeeded in her mission.
Doesn't matter: it's the effort that counts. Plus, he's a transactional moron.
That is a risk, but she's got to try something. Doing nothing is how the US got where it is now.
A policy of appeasement certainly can be worse than nothing
It worked so well in the 1930s and 40s!
She's not "trying to get her country back." For one, it doesn't belong to her but to all Venezuelans, the majority of which do not like her. In addition, she has spoken publicly at economic conferences about her plans to sell the rights to Venezuela's oil and other natural resources to US oil companies. She's playing a game here, but it's at the expense of Venezuelans, not for their benefit.
When the US kidnaps your president and installs a puppet, it’s hardly “getting your country back” when the puppet plays along.
She's not the puppet he installed. She's trying to bribe him to put her in that position but for now it's Maduro's VP Delcy Rodriguez
No, but she sure as hell has wanted to for a very long time.
Which is the stupid part, because the peace prize was her only leverage. It's pretty clear she's purely trying to play the book of appeasing him to get him help her, but failed to actually secure that part in some under the table quid pro quo.
Now Trump gets to pick and choose between two people that are willing to sell out their country to appease him, except one is actually in control of said country while the other handed him a peace prize (her only leverage) and hoped for him to 'do the right thing'.
She already bribed him by promising access to the oil for political gain.
Its too late for that.
Versus a civil war, this would be a much more peaceful approach.
I mean... I have to say, civil war wise this is possibly worse.
Trumps initial claim of her was that she was weak and she didn't have the support of her people. Obviously it's BS... but look at it now.
Imagine being one of the Venezuelan people. Someone just kissed the ass of the guy who just kidnapped your former leader. Regardless of her capabilities... Everyone will know she took power, by overtly sucking up to the guy that's been bombing their fishing boats, killed 80 people in the process of kidnapping their leader. No matter how you look at it I can't imagine the people of Venezuela are going to see her as anything but having sold out their country.
You don’t think that a well connected person being undemocratically installed by the government that kidnapped the existing president, stole your oil and murdered dozens of your people be the cause of a civil war?
Seems like you only believe in might makes right.
Not at all, but she did win the last election soo...
Did she?
Kind of weird because she did not actually run in the presidential election. She won her primary but was disqualified before the election.
Now she’s sucking up to someone that has murdered dozens of Venezuelans. Her interview on Hannity is pathetic.
She's not playing him. He is playing her. She's the one begging in this situation, not him.
He not a toddler, he's about to extort an entire country for oil, and very likely go to war with them. Machado isn't playing him, shes encouraging him in the hope that she gets a seat at the table.
And very likely to face another Vietnam. Deservedly, 10x-over.
He's doing things based on his memories. 80s were his happy time. He went in for oil but even the oil companies want little to do with that - we're past peak oil and it'll cost a fortune to get the oil fields producing an amount that's profitable and that will also have a big affect on demand cost (i.e. cost will go down so there's no point in extraction)
Former oil worker and from a family of oil workers. Been through enough cycles to know what to expect.
Trump is a toddler who doesn't understand simple business ideas anymore, if he ever did. Machado is playing him because she knows he only listens to praise from the last person he talked to. He's very simple and old.
Plus, more oil on the markets will just push the price down further without increasing sales. Trump is not going to wave a magic wand and make people around the world start burning more oil when everyone else is switching to renewables as fast as they can.
Is Trump in a position to "give" Venezuela to Machado? As far as I can determine the same government that was running it before Maduro's abduction is running it currently.
That was a choice by the Trump administration. They could have removed the entire cabinet if they wanted to. They probably, and I may be giving them more credit than they deserve, hoped that showing the remaining cabinet what could happen would mean they would do as Trump asked. Mob tactics.
Also they probably thought creating a power vacuum wouldn't help either because it never does. Ever. Ever ever. History has proved that SOO many times.
I think you're giving them a bit too much credit...
Could they have? I have seen a lot of talk, but the actual plan that Rubio laid out is that they are going to embargo Venezuela until the government does what they want. The same thing they were doing before Maduro's abduction. It's been a couple weeks now since that abduction and it doesn't seem like Trump is any more in control of Venezuela than he was prior to the abduction. Just a lot of grandiose claims.
Yeah I don't think being forced to give away your natural resources is a great deal.
truely the greatest snowflake
Sure this is great "move" if you have no morals or ethics... the notion the Orange Pedo will hand over a country and forget about is laughable... she just wants to be next in the trough and will obey the fellon president as long as she can suck the tit, Venezuelans be damned
What morals or ethics? The medal is just a thing. Trading it for an ideal like democracy for your people (ie, a peaceful bid to try to restore democracy to your country) seems a worthy cause indicating all the more that she deserved that prize in the first place.
The cozying up to a convicted felon, rapist, fraudster, pedophile, war monger part?
Machado does not want democracy, she wants to be "appointed"
Like every world leader flattering & gifting the douche (a problem that might resolve itself in a few years) to evade extra hardships from the US? Have you been asleep? That's classic diplomacy in this sort of situation. Except for the warmongering part, the US's problems aren't everyone else's: the US can fuck themselves for all they care.
No sense in faulting someone working with what they got. They're in no position to challenge the US.
They already had an election robbed by falsified results.
Exactly and look where that got us. Flattering one of the worse human beings alive today has not slowed him down or even curve his behaviour for the better
Yes and Machado was not a candiate in it… if she were peddling for that last election to be ratified, I would be more understanding but she just wants to be annointed the new puppet head of Venezuela
When the enemy has no morals or ethics, what do you do?
The US has always wanted puppet states in the Americas. Sure, she'd be beholden to the US, for now, but she may be better than the Maduro regime, and the people voted her in too.
I feel you want me to say you are supposed to sink to his level? isn't that what most Americans are complaining the Democrats are doing?
Democrats haven't sunk to that level at all. Wtf are you talking about. Dems have written strongly worded letters asking for violence to please stop, protested a bit and blown some whistles. Meanwhile MAGA and their paramilitary (ice) have gone around killing people. They are not the same.
Not suggesting violent retaliation, because that is what the right want - they're trying to provoke violence, but there are other non-violent disruptive behaviours that could be enacted
I'm talking about their movement towards the right. Democrats are far right compared to most actual leftist party in the world