The lunch meeting is slated to occur at the White house at 12:30 p.m. in Trump’s private dining room. The meeting will be behind closed doors.
The president told Fox News host Sean Hannity last week it would be a “great honor” if Machado gave him her Nobel Peace Prize when they met. Machado was awarded the prize in 2025.
Meanwhile, there will be a press briefing at the White House and the president will also be meeting with the 2025 Stanley Cup champions, the Florida Panthers around 4:00 p.m.
Follow live updates on President Trump and national politics for the latest news, analysis and more from Washington:
President Trump announced Thursday the so-called “Board of Peace” that will oversee a transitional government in Gaza has been formed.
“It is my Great Honor to announce that THE BOARD OF PEACE has been formed,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
“The Members of the Board will be announced shortly, but I can say with certainty that it is the Greatest and Most Prestigious Board ever assembled at any time, any place,” the president continued. “Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
Trump will serve as chairman of the Board of Peace per the 20-point peace plan for post-Hamas Gaza unveiled last year.
The president previously announced that former British Prime Minister Tony Blair would serve on the board.
The White House did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
President Trump showed off his new hockey bling -- courtesy of Stanley Cup Champions Florida Panthers.
The team presented the president on Thursday with two championship rings, a golden hockey stick and a red jersey with a "47" and the name Trump on it. Trump is serving as the 47th president.
The Florida Panthers presented Trump with two championship rings, a golden hokey stick, and a custom jersey. AP
Trump put one of rings on and showed it off to the cameras during a White House ceremony.
And he gave his new hockey stick a wave.
“Good for slashing,” he said of it.
The president praised the team on their second Stanley Cup win and congratulated them on denying Canada the championship crown.
Trump praised the Panthers for their second Stanley Cup win. REUTERS
“You denied Canada the Stanley Cup,” he said as guests in the East Room burst into applause, adding the US has "a little competition" with its neighbor to the north.
“We're doing much better than Canada, but that's okay,” Trump noted. “We want them to do well, and they're going to do well.”
President Trump and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) met privately Thursday to discuss infrastructure funding for New York's Gateway tunnel project as well as healthcare and immigration policy.
The rare afternoon meeting between the president and the most powerful congressional Democrat wasn't publicly known until after it had ended.
"President Trump requested a meeting with Leader Schumer at the White House to discuss the president’s hold on the Gateway tunnel project between New York and New Jersey," the senator's office said in a statement.
The meeting between Trump and Schumer was not publicly known until after it ended. REUTERS
Trump froze about $18 billion in funding for the Gateway tunnel and the Second Avenue subway project in October — making the announcement on the first day of the Schumer-led shutdown, during which Democrats for 43 days held up government funding in a bid to extend middle class Obamacare subsidies.
"In the meeting, Leader Schumer emphasized the urgent need to promptly release the already-secured funds for the Gateway Program — the most important infrastructure project in the nation employing thousands of workers and vital to New York and the entire Northeast economy," his office said.
"Leader Schumer also raised the need for President Trump to push Senate Republicans to support the 3-year extension of the ACA tax credit bill that has already passed the House."
Schumer reportedly pushed for the release of the funds for the Gateway Program. REUTERS
Trump on Thursday announced a new Republican legislative plan for healthcare, featuring federal subsidies that would flow into Health Savings Accounts, rather than go toward health insurance premiums. The pandemic-era subsidies that expired Dec. 31 went to about 20 million middle-class policy holders.
Schumer also "told the president ICE raids are terrorizing communities [and] told President Trump that their actions are dangerous and putting more people at risk and he must pull back ICE from U.S. cities," his office said.
The White House did not immediately comment on the meeting.
“I presented the president of the United States the medal, the Nobel Peace Prize,” Machado told reporters on Capitol Hill.
Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado presented President Trump with her Nobel Peace Prize during a White House meeting. Daniel Torok / The White House
Machado won the award last October for her fight against Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro. AP
Machado, who won the prestigious award last October for her tireless fight to restore freedom in Venezuela and defeat the authoritarian regime of Nicolás Maduro, explained that she also had a message for Trump when she gave him the prize.
“I told him this: 200 years ago, Gen. [Marquis de] Lafayette gave Simon Bolivar a medal with George Washington’s face on it. Bolivar kept that medal the rest of his life,” Machado said.
Maria Machado smiled coyly at reporters and just smiled when asked if she gave her Nobel Peace Prize to President Trump during her meeting with him at the White House.
The Venezuelan opposition leader spent about two and half hours at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Thursday afternoon, having a private lunch with the president, before heading to Capitol Hill to meet with lawmakers.
As she left the White House she paused to greet supporters outside its fence, taking selfies with some of them.
Maria Machado just smiles at reporters when asked whether she gave her Nobel Peace Prize to POTUS during her White House meeting with him. pic.twitter.com/4pxlT9Khyp
But the mystery remains as to whether she handed the president the gold medal, which is only 2.5 inches in diameter and could easily fit in her bag.
Machado won the Nobel Peace Prize last year for her work "promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela." Trump had been openly campaigning to win the award.
She said last week that she would like to give or share the award with Trump.
"I certainly would love to be able to personally tell him that we believe -- the Venezuelan people, because this is a prize of the Venezuelan people -- certainly want to, to give it to him and share it with him," Machado told Fox News host Sean Hannity on Monday. "What he has done is historic. It's a huge step towards a democratic transition."
The medal is hers to do with as she wishes. But the Nobel Prize Committee, in a post on X Thursday morning, pointed out: "A medal can change owners, but the title of a Nobel Peace Prize laureate cannot."
President Trump threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807 to deploy the military against anti-immigration enforcement rioters in Minnesota. The act, last used in 1992 during the LA riots, allows the president to call forth the militia to suppress insurrections.
President Trump is keeping all his options open when it comes to Iran, press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Thursday.
Karoline Leavitt didn't deny Trump was persuaded to not take action against Iran but conceded that "there's been a lot of speculation in the media about what the president is going to do at any given moment or any given night." AP
Leavitt, in her press briefing, was asked about a report from Agence France-Presse, citing a senior Saudi official, that Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Oman persuaded the president to "give Iran a chance” and not take military action.
She didn't deny it but conceded that "there's been a lot of speculation in the media about what the president is going to do at any given moment or any given night."
“They have been based on anonymous sources who are pretending or guessing to know the president's thinking. The truth is, only President Trump knows what he's going to do, and a very, very small team of advisers are read into his thinking on that," Leavitt added.
President Trump is "aware of" allegations of workplace misconduct against Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer, but "stands by" her pending the outcome of an internal review, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Thursday.
"I have spoken to the president about that report regarding the secretary. He's aware of the internal investigation, and he stands by the secretary, and he thinks that she's doing a tremendous job at the Department of Labor on behalf of American workers," Leavitt said at her briefing.
Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer speaking with Union Pacific employees at Union Pacific Harriman Dispatch Center in Omaha on Jan. 14, 2026. Nikos Frazier/Omaha World-Herald via AP
The Post exclusively reported last week that Chavez-DeRemer was under internal investigation following a whistleblower complaint alleging she has been “abusing her position” by pursuing an “inappropriate” relationship with a subordinate.
Labor Department Inspector General Anthony D’Esposito has placed on leave the secretary’s chief of staff Jihun Han and deputy chief of staff Rebecca Wright.
Chavez-DeRemer's aides stand accused of falsifying travel justifications so that the former Oregon congresswoman can spend time with family or friends on the taxpayers’ dime.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Thursday that Iran has halted plans to execute 800 protesters in response to pressure from President Trump.
"The president received a message, as he revealed to all of you and the whole world yesterday, that the killing and the executions will stop," Leavitt told reporters during her regular briefing.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that Iran halted the execution of 800 protesters due to pressure from President Trump. Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
"The president understands today that 800 executions that were scheduled and supposed to take place yesterday were halted. And so the president and his team are closely monitoring this situation, and all options remain on the table."
Trump appeared to be leaning toward military strikes in response to the Islamic Republic's killing of protesters before saying Wednesday that Iranian leaders had pledged to halt their repression.
WASHINGTON — Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said Thursday it was "beyond disturbing" to hear a report that Arab nations "intervened on behalf of Iran to avoid decisive military action by President Trump."
"The ayatollah's regime has American blood on its hands," Graham said in an X post. "They are slaughtering people in the streets."
Trump has not formally ruled out military strikes on Iranian targets amid Tehran's crackdown against its own citizens, who are protesting the worsening economic conditions in the country.
The South Carolina Republican cited a report by Agence France-Presse, citing a senior Saudi official, that Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Oman persuaded the president to "give Iran a chance."
"If it is accurate that the Arab response is 'action is not necessary against Iran' given this current outrageous slaughter of innocent people, then there will be a dramatic rethinking on my part regarding the nature of the alliances now and in the future," Graham thundered.
All the headlines suggesting that our so-called Arab allies have intervened on behalf of Iran to avoid decisive military action by President Trump are beyond disturbing. The ayatollah’s regime has American blood on its hands. They are slaughtering people in the streets.
Iranian security forces have killed nearly 3,500 anti-regime protesters in the country, according to the Norway-based Iran Human Rights group, with other unofficial reports claiming the death toll is almost 10 times that number.
President Trump released his “great healthcare plan” on Thursday that he vowed will put Americans first and allow them to purchase their own health care options, thereby lowering the cost of prescription drugs and insurance premiums.
“The government is going to pay the money directly to you -- it goes to you -- and then you take the money and buy your own health care,” he said in a video announcing his plan.
President Trump vowed he will put Americans first and allow them to purchase their own health care options. REUTERS
The proposal will lower prescription drug prices, decrease insurance premiums, and require greater transparency from insurance companies when it comes to coverage and rate details, according to a White House fact sheet.
“The big insurance companies lose and the people of our country win,” Trump said.
His plan requires passage by Congress, which is currently controlled by Republicans although it could face tough opposition in the Senate. Trump urged lawmakers to pass it immediately.
“Do it right now,” he said.
Under the president’s plan, the government would place funds in health care savings accounts for Americans to use. It would also create a website -- Trump RX -- to make safe pharmaceutical drugs available for over-the-counter purchase.
Administration officials estimated people would save between 10 percent and 15 percent on health care premiums under the president’s proposal.
WASHINGTON — House Republican Conference Chairwoman Lisa McClain acknowledged that passing a second reconciliation package is going to be considerably "more difficult" than the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
Reconciliation is the cumbersome legislative vehicle that would allow Republicans to bypass the 60-vote Senate filibuster to pass legislation Democrats oppose.
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-Mo.) previously told NOTUS that "there's simply no path to pass a second one," despite GOP leadership publicly pushing for it.
Lisa McClain acknowledged that passing a second reconciliation package is going to be considerably "more difficult" than the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Getty Images
"I think it is going to be more difficult," McClain told The Post, adding that she anticipates the GOP will work to wrangle its affordability agenda for the year through Congress piecemeal if a second reconciliation attempt fails.
"Whether we do that on an individual basis or we wrap it up into reconciliation, so to speak, I don't know," she added. "There is an appetite that I can assure you that we continue on the lowering costs, putting more money in people's pockets agenda."