Trumps image among Venezuelans collapsed in eight months

After Maduros capture in January, Meganálisis recorded approval or gratitude near 92 %. By August that approval had fallen to a single digit or just above, and AtlasIntel put the positive image at 30 %. The rejection is not nostalgia for Maduro: it is the pact with Delcy Rodríguez and oil.

Inside Venezuela: Meganálisis

In January 2026, after Nicolás Maduros capture, Meganálisis recorded 92.2 % approval or gratitude versus 6.3 % disapproval. The approval path was: February 82.9 %; March 74.5 %; April 47.1 %; May 30.9 %; July 21.5 %; August 9.7 %. In August disapproval reached 69.2 %. The wave ran 24–31 August, with 1,129 interviews, 95 % confidence and a ±2.92 margin, as reported via El Nacional and the Miami Herald.

Meganálisis attributes the fall to the gap between Januarys expectation of change and the sense that Washington negotiated with Delcy Rodríguez and the apparatus that remained, without a transition or elections soon.

On the Trump–Delcy meeting, Meganálisis (15–19 September, 1,627 adults online) measured 91.4 % disagree, 3.5 % agree and 5.1 % dont know. 93.7 % disagreed with Rodríguez speaking at the U.N. in the name of Venezuelans.

On the oil agreement, about 80 % do not support it, 13 % do and 8 % dont know (Meganálisis, via Miami Herald / El Nuevo Herald; another note cites 79.8 %).

AtlasIntel for Bloomberg

AtlasIntel (for Bloomberg) does not use the same question or sample as Meganálisis; that is why August does not match 9.7 %. The positive image went from 51 % in July to 30 % in August; the negative, from 29 % to 43 %. In August, 28 % had no defined stance.

On the oil pact, AtlasIntel placed about 35 % in favor, 38 % against and 27 % unsure; half believe it benefits the United States more.

IRI nuance

An IRI poll (CID Gallup, telephone, 12 June–15 July 2026; fieldwork paused after the 24 June quake) found 77 % saw the U.S. role as positive between January and July, and 82 % want close relations. The rejection is more about the pact with residual chavismo than about the United States in the abstract.

Diaspora, especially Florida

In 2024 Trump won Doral with more than 60 % and helped flip Miami-Dade. Many celebrated Maduros exit. Since then the bloc split over the end of TPS and parole, deportations and ICE operations in Doral. A 2025 FIU survey found that about half of Florida Venezuelans who said they had voted for Trump had regret or mixed feelings; some 70 % of those who would not vote for him again had a relative with TPS or parole.

This week (3–4 October 2026) the Coalición de Venezolanos en USA, in Doral, delivered a letter to Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart - backed by 20 organizations and 126 leaders - denouncing suffering from deportations and warning they will mobilize the vote in the midterms.

Close

Among Venezuelans Trump remains, for many, the one who removed Maduro. He has ceased to be, for the majority inside the country and for a growing share of the exile, the one who would deliver the transition.