Donald Trump’s co-president, Elon Musk, is deeply unpopular, and his unlawful meddling in the federal government through the Department of Government Efficiency, a federal advisory commission he leads, could become a serious liability for Trump and the GOP.
House Majority Forward, a progressive nonprofit, released polling from Impact Research on Thursday that found Musk’s approval rating underwater, with 42% viewing him favorably and 51% viewing him unfavorably.
HMF said that voters are not a fan of Musk and his DOGE bros reportedly meddling in Treasury Department payment systems, which could impact Social Security and Medicare payments as well as tax return disbursement, among many other things. And HMF encouraged Democrats to go after Musk and DOGE on that issue.
“While not opposed to the concept of DOGE initially, registered voters fear DOGE may endanger the programs working families and seniors rely on for the purpose of enriching members of the Trump administration. These participants voiced strong opposition to gutting Social Security benefits, raising the retirement age, and cutting other government-sponsored retirement benefits,” HMF wrote of their poll’s findings.
The HMF poll results are similar to a bevy of other polling on Musk that came out this week.
A YouGov survey released Wednesday found that while the vast majority of Americans (83%) think Musk has influence over Trump, a plurality (46%) don’t want him to.
A Morning Consult poll also published on Wednesday found that more voters disapprove of Musk’s role in the Trump administration than support it for the first time since the outlet began tracking Musk’s approval in November. The poll found that just 41% of voters approve of Musk’s appointment, a 10-percentage-point decline since Jan. 20, when Trump took office.
A new Civiqs poll fielded Feb. 1-4 found that a plurality of registered voters (46%) believe Musk performed a Nazi salute at Trump’s inauguration. That comes after Civiqs found that 52% of voters have an unfavorable view of the right-wing billionaire.
Ultimately, Democrats have been sounding the alarm about Musk’s power grab over the federal government.
Musk and his army of college-aged DOGE bros are working to shut down federal agencies and freeze spending that Congress approved, which has drawn numerous lawsuits.
As mentioned in the HMF poll, Musk and DOGE have also reportedly been accessing the Treasury Department’s payment systems responsible for allocating trillions of dollars of grants, Medicare benefits, and Social Security payments. This has raised alarm bells from security experts and Democrats, who have vowed to introduce legislation to stop it.
“The scale here is unprecedented in terms of the risk to sensitive personal and financial information,” Alan Butler, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, told Politico. “It’s an absolute nightmare.”
Beyond the polling, there are real-world signs that Musk is galvanizing the demoralized Democratic base.
Protests cropped up in state capitals all over the country on Wednesday, with thousands of demonstrators voiced opposition to Musk’s hostile takeover of the federal government.
Pete Souza, a former presidential photographer, said he attended one of the protests in Illinois.
“I’ve probably been to 100 political protests like this in my life, and there have always been counter protesters that show up. Until today,” Souza wrote in an Instagram post, along with photos of the Illinois protest. “NO ONE came to support Trump/Elon. Not a single counter-protesters. ZERO.”
Wired reported that Musk’s role is now “causing rifts” in the Trump administration.
However, publicly, GOP lawmakers seem totally fine with what Musk is up to. And House Republicans on Wednesday blocked efforts by Democrats to subpoena Musk to testify.
“I just moved to subpoena Elon Musk to appear before the Oversight Committee to answer for his unlawful takeover of agencies across the government,” Democratic Rep. Gerry Connolly of Virginia, the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, wrote Wednesday in a post on X. “Republicans blocked my motion without allowing any debate. They will stop at nothing to cover up Elon Musk’s lawlessness.”
Republican Senators have gone on TV to razz Democrats, telling them to get used to Musk’s role.
“It is going to be a very aggressive movement on the part of Republicans, President Trump, and Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency, so the Democrats need to get used to this,” Sen. Joni Ernst, Republican of Iowa, said in a Tuesday appearance on Fox News. “We are going to find ways to focus our American taxpayer dollars on the things that they should be spent on, which is the American people and our interests.”
Republicans should be careful what they wish for. Tying themselves to Musk could be a serious liability in the 2026 midterms.
