Machado's Push to Return for Quake Relief Draws Trump Administration Rebuke

María Corina Machado's repeated attempts to return to Venezuela after the earthquakes — including a bid to play a role administering aid — angered senior Trump administration officials, who called her efforts "grotesque political opportunism" and said they saddled the State Department with "extra needless drama." Machado, who has been living in the U.S. on an expired Venezuelan passport since the White House sidelined her in January in favor of working with Rodríguez's transitional government, has lobbied Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Deputy Secretary of State Chris Landau, Miami-area Republican members of Congress, and White House officials for permission to return. The episode deepened an emerging rift between GOP hawks sympathetic to Machado and a Trump administration that has continued backing Rodríguez.