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To gain influence in Washington, many conservative leaders in Latin America are ditching traditional diplomatic channels to play to an audience of one: U.S. President Donald Trump. This caudillo courtship, as I have termed it—where foreign politicians aim to curry favor within the MAGA ecosystem—reflects the deeply personalized nature of Trump’s approach to power. Caudillo is a Spanish word for a Latin American strongman; under a caudillo, power is highly personalized and concentrated in a charismatic leader rather than in institutions.

Caudillo courtship carries great risks. While flattery and fealty may benefit some Latin American countries during the remainder of Trump’s time in office, the strategy could undermine the region’s long-term strategic interests. Caudillo courtship might also endanger regional right-wing leaders’ political survival, allowing their opponents to frame them as sellouts and potentially triggering a nationalist backlash.

To gain influence in Washington, many conservative leaders in Latin America are ditching traditional diplomatic channels to play to an audience of one: U.S. President Donald Trump. This caudillo courtship, as I have termed it—where foreign politicians aim to curry favor within the MAGA ecosystem—reflects the deeply personalized nature of Trump’s approach to power. Caudillo is a Spanish word for a Latin American strongman; under a caudillo, power is highly personalized and concentrated in a charismatic leader rather than in institutions.

Caudillo courtship carries great risks. While flattery and fealty may benefit some Latin American countries during the remainder of Trump’s time in office, the strategy could undermine the region’s long-term strategic interests. Caudillo courtship might also endanger regional right-wing leaders’ political survival, allowing their opponents to frame them as sellouts and potentially triggering a nationalist backlash.

No Latin American conservative has courted Trump’s affections more persistently than María Corina Machado. The Venezuelan opposition leader and 2025 Nobel Peace Prize winner has gone to remarkable lengths to signal loyalty to Trump, seldom missing an opportunity to lavish praise upon the president or parrot his rhetoric. In a November 2025 interview, Machado even echoed Trump’s discredited narrative about alleged fraud during the 2020 U.S. election, claiming that Venezuela’s leftist regime manipulated the result in favor of Democrats.

On Jan. 15, Machado took her flattery to historic heights. After securing a White House meeting with Trump, she handed him her Nobel medal and lauded the president’s “unique commitment” to Venezuela’s freedom. (Nobel organizers in Norway reiterated........

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