Grenell also pressed Machado to explain how she planned to install her surrogate candidate, Edmundo González, after she herself was barred from running. US officials say she failed to provide any workable plan for translating electoral legitimacy into actual control of the state. Her insistence on rejecting any dialogue with Maduro’s government, a core pillar of her political strategy, further limited her ability to build a broad coalition inside Venezuela.
Machado’s hardline support for sweeping sanctions compounded the problem. Her stance alienated Venezuela’s business class, much of civil society, and even some opposition-aligned actors who had found ways to operate under Maduro’s rule to keep the country functioning. US officials believed her messaging increasingly reflected the views of the diaspora rather than the realities faced by Venezuelans still inside the country.
Meanwhile, Machado’s allies in exile aggressively attacked critics on social media, costing her support among US Democrats and business figures with influence in Washington. As one political scientist put it bluntly, without US overreach, Machado lacked the institutions and levers of power needed to govern.
In short, Trump didn’t reject Machado because she symbolized opposition. He rejected her because, in the administration’s view, she never demonstrated a credible path from moral authority to actual power.
