WASHINGTON / NEW YORK (Sept. 18–19, 2026) — President Donald Trump will meet Venezuela’s interim President Delcy Rodríguez in New York on Tuesday, Sept. 22, on the sidelines of a United Nations General Assembly leaders’ reception he is hosting, a senior U.S. official said Friday.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz told reporters on a briefing call that Trump will “participate in a pull-aside with the acting president Rodriguez of Venezuela” at the reception, Reuters reported. Waltz did not detail what they might discuss. It is not framed as a formal bilateral sit-down.

Reuters described the encounter as the first in-person meeting between the two leaders since Washington ousted former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in January. Rodríguez, Maduro’s former deputy, has been acting president; the Venezuelan communications ministry did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.

Last month the U.S. and Venezuela signed an energy agreement that would allow the United States to take partial control of Venezuela’s oil reserves, with American companies positioned to help revive the battered sector, Reuters noted. Trump has repeatedly expressed support for Rodríguez since Maduro’s removal, even as opposition leader María Corina Machado — who left Venezuela to receive the Nobel Peace Prize — faces questions about when to return home amid reported reticence from the Trump administration about her homecoming.

UNGA week pull-asides are often more signal than treaty. This one puts Trump face-to-face with the caretaker Caracas wants recognized — and leaves the formal agenda, for now, off the record.

Sources: Reuters (Sept. 18, 2026), reporting by Humeyra Pamuk and Steve Holland.