It looks like Elon Musk isn’t winning any popularity contests anytime soon. New polling has found that the billionaire technocrat has fallen out of favor with, well, everyone (including Republicans).
Republicans are reportedly losing faith in Musk, who Donald Trump appointed to lead the Department of Government Efficiency or DOGE, which is currently on a slash and burn campaign through several essential federal agencies.
At first, Republicans were on board with Musk’s radical plan to eradicate government agencies. In a poll from The Economist/YouGov taken in the days after the 2024 presidential election, 47 percent of Republicans said that they wanted Musk to have “a lot” of influence in Trump’s administration. Twenty-nine percent said they wanted him to have “a little” influence, and just 12 percent said they hoped he’d have “none at all.”
But less than a month into Trump’s reign in the White House—and his shadow president’s nefarious efforts to ruin everything—it seems that Republican voters aren’t so sweet on the unelected bureaucrat running rampant through the federal government. A new poll published Wednesday from The Economist/YouGov found that now only 26 percent of Republicans want Musk to have “a lot” of influence, a drop of 21 points. By contrast, 43 percent of Republican respondents said they wanted Musk to have “a little” influence, and 17 percent said they wanted his hands out of government altogether.
So what exactly is happening?
It seems that the more people learn about Musk, the less they seem to like him—at least, according to a new Hart Research survey published Wednesday by Groundwork Collective and Public Citizen. The poll asked respondents about how much influence they felt Musk should have in government, explaining aspects of his role in DOGE, his lack of oversight, and his far-reaching access.
By the end of the survey, 63 percent of voters reported having an unfavorable opinion of Musk, an increase of nine points from the beginning of the survey. Meanwhile, only 32 percent of respondents had a favorable opinion, which was down 7 percent from the start, and showed a major negative swing among non-MAGA Republicans.
As beloved as Musk may be among the MAGA crowd, it’s not clear that he appeals to voters in general, which could prove to be a problem for Trump, who claims to have a mandate from the American people to do whatever the hell he wants.
Respondents seemed disturbed by the extent to which Musk had permeated the Trump administration. Fifty-seven percent of respondents said that Musk had too much influence and involvement in the government. Of the voters who were familiar with DOGE, 60 percent said Musk had too much power.
Sixty-one percent of respondents said that they were less favorable of Musk’s role with DOGE because he was not bound by any rules about conflicts of interest. On Wednesday, the White House reaffirmed that the SpaceX CEO would self-determine when he had a conflict of interest.
Fifty-six percent of respondents said that they had an unfavorable view of Musk’s role with DOGE, considering the group’s unfettered access to all unclassified records, software systems, and I.T. systems across federal agencies.
Over the weekend, DOGE employees raided USAID offices for access to personnel files and payment information, shortly before every employee was placed on administrative leave. Every hour, it seems DOGE employees gain access to the files of a new federal agency. Musk’s team recently gained access to Treasury Department files for an “operational efficiency assessment.”
Two sources told WIRED that one of Musk’s twenty-something-years-old engineers had the ability not just to read, but to write code on the Treasury’s extremely sensitive Payment Automation Manager and Secure Payment System at the Bureau of the Fiscal Service. The Treasury Department insisted Tuesday that Musk’s access was “read-only.”
In general, a majority of voters just don’t like the DOGE czar at all. According to Hart Research, 54 percent of voters had an unfavorable view of Musk, including 40 percent who found him very unfavorable.
Lawmakers said they have been overwhelmed by calls from constituents across the country concerned about the Musk-Trump takeover.
“The U.S. Senate phone system has been receiving around 1,600 calls each minute, compared to the 40 calls per minute we usually receive, which has disrupted our call systems,” wrote Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski in a post on X Wednesday.
