President Donald Trump has said Venezuelans are “dancing in the streets” because of the money entering the oil-rich country since this year’s ousting of Nicolás Maduro. Many Venezuelans are not so sure.

Polls show that the US president’s star, which soared after the January military operation to capture Maduro, has started to wane among Venezuelans frustrated with the slow pace of change.

A survey by Meganálisis last month found that Trump’s approval rating had dropped from 75 points in March to 47 points in April, while an Atlas Intel and Bloomberg poll found it fell from 53 per cent in February to 45 per cent in May. 

Trump said on Wednesday that Venezuela “has become a happy country” but Carlos Salazar, co-ordinator of a coalition of trade unions, said: “Here in Venezuela, we have to tell President Trump that nobody is happy.”

Hours after Maduro’s arrest, the Trump administration backed his deputy Delcy Rodríguez to shepherd through reforms to open up the country’s vast oil and mineral reserves to private investment. During pro-democracy marches in Caracas in February, some demonstrators waved banners thanking Trump.

In return, Washington has begun unwinding sanctions and allowing Venezuela to sell its crude at market prices via US-based intermediaries. 

But beyond the release of about 600 political prisoners and an increased tolerance for public demonstrations, many Venezuelans say they are yet to see material change in a country where annual inflation is running above 600 per cent.

Oil production has started to take off, and executives have flown around the country in the hope of signing deals, but many ordinary Venezuelans have yet to see living standards improve.

“There have been no economic improvements in the country,” said Oscar Montero, a taxi driver in Caracas. “Even if more money has come in from oil revenues, it hasn’t reached us.”

Thousands of people have taken to the streets for marches in recent months to call for increases in the minimum wage. 

The country’s monthly inflation rate ran at 6.3 per cent in May, according to the central bank, while year-on-year inflation stood at more than 500 per cent.

Venezuelans are unable to cover their basic needs on a minimum wage of 130 bolívares per month, equivalent to less than 26 US cents. That sum is routinely topped up with bonuses, but a minimum income package equivalent to $240 a month, increased in April from $180, still falls far short of households’ needs. Analysts at the teachers’ union have said that food for a family of five for a month cost an estimated $730.59 in May.

“We all appreciate January 3 [the seizure of Maduro], but little has changed in the country since then,” said Luz Blanco, who owns a small food business.

“They released some prisoners and that is a good thing, but the economy remains just as bad.”

Oil production has ticked up, according to Jovanny Martínez, executive vice-president of state oil company PDVSA, who told a recent forum with oil executives that production reached 1.2mn barrels per day at the close of 2025, up from 1mn a year earlier. He said a further rise to 1.3mn b/d was expected this year.

Since removing Maduro, the US government has taken charge of Venezuela’s oil revenues, which it says are being managed to ensure stability and aid distribution inside Venezuela.

But Venezuelans say they have received little information about whether it is being used for their benefit.

The US state department has said the cash is now going into a New York bank account, audited by KPMG. Rodríguez’s government has said that $300mn entered the country through March.

A Venezuelan website created to track the funds indicates that all of this revenue was distributed as bonuses for public employees. Venezuela’s finance ministry did not respond to a request for comment.

A Venezuelan businessperson, who asked not to be named, said: “There’s a big question around all the progress made so far, and that is ‘how long will Trump stay interested in Venezuela?’”

Washington has offered little clarity about the timetable for a political transition.

Salazar, the union leader, has sent letters to the US embassy in Caracas — which reopened in March — to call for new elections but has received no response. Maduro claimed victory in the 2024 presidential election but is widely believed to have lost it by a large margin.

The Trump administration has said elections will come in due course, once the country and its economy have been stabilised. Some 8mn Venezuelans left the country during Maduro’s 13-year tenure as the economy collapsed.

“Venezuela is in a better place today and in a better trajectory today than it was five months ago,” US secretary of state Marco Rubio told a Senate hearing on Tuesday. 

“Is it where it needs to be? Is it where it needs to ultimately wind up? The answer is, of course, no,” Rubio said. “Ultimately, in order to truly transition, they have to have multi-party free and fair elections.”

Oscar Murillo, co-ordinator of Caracas-based rights group Provea, said that “there is a risk that stabilisation will prioritise guarantees for foreign investment over human rights”. 

Rodriguez has reshuffled most of Maduro’s cabinet, but has maintained his repressive apparatus and installed Gustavo González Lopez, a former spy chief who oversaw Venezuela’s brutal prisons, as defence minister.

About 400 political prisoners remain behind bars, according to Foro Penal, a local watchdog.

“The repressive framework remains intact,” Murillo said. “Economic and legislative changes point to a more orderly model, but not necessarily a more transparent one — and certainly not one more respectful of human rights.”

Trump has also stoked latent nationalism in Venezuela by floating the idea that the country should become the 51st US state. Even Rodríguez, who has praised the improved relationship with Washington, pushed back on that, saying last month that Venezuela was “not a colony, but a free country”.

Nicmer Evans, a Venezuelan political scientist, said: “The suggestion creates confusion and raises expectations that go unmet . . . Many others simply see it as a joke.”

Oliver Díaz, who goes out every day to sell coffee on the streets of the capital, was blunt. “Maduro is gone and everything remains the same,” he said. “There isn’t as much fear as before, but nothing has improved as prices keep rising. We’re just trying to scrape by.”