Voters Are Turning on Elon Musk

As Elon Musk attempts to wield more authority as a “special government employee” in Donald Trump’s new government, the tech billionaire has started to wear out his welcome with the American electorate.

For the first time since tracking began in November, more voters disapprove than approve of Musk’s appointment to lead the unofficial “Department of Government Efficiency” (46% to 41%). It marks a 10-point decline in net approval of Trump’s decision to elevate him, with most of the movement materializing since Trump took office on Jan. 20.

While the bulk of Republican voters support Musk’s perch, support has softened a bit. But the lion’s share of the movement against him has been driven by independent voters. Compared with our first survey in November testing his involvement on Trump’s team, approval of his placement has fallen 8 points among independent voters (to 28%), while disapproval increased 12 points (to 53%).

Alongside voters’ shift away from his involvement in the White House, our tracking also shows voters have changed their views of him personally. Since November, voters have gone from almost equally likely to view him favorably or unfavorably to giving him a net favorability rating 10 points underwater. Our latest survey shows 49% hold negative views of him compared with 39% who view him positively.

Similarly to voters’ approval of Musk’s White House gig, most of the movement on views of him personally has been driven by independents — but Republicans have soured a bit, too. Our latest survey shows that 70% of GOP voters view him favorably, down 5 points from November.

Views on Trump’s executive actions

The survey comes after Musk has sought to use his White House gig to disrupt a range of workforces across the government, supported by  Trump’s own efforts via executive actions. 

Similar to voters’ views of Musk, they were also more likely to disapprove than approve of the attempted freeze on all federal grant and loan programs in order to ensure that they comply with Trump’s executive orders (46% to 41%), a measure which has been paused by the courts. 

That action — which spooked a number of state and local governments and non-governmental organizations that rely on federal funding — is about as unpopular as Trump’s attempt to ban transgender Americans from serving in the U.S. military or eliminate birthright citizenship, but a number of other executive actions are relatively popular.

For example, Trump’s attempt to reverse Biden-era expulsions of U.S. troops who did not get a COVID-19 vaccine from the military is his most popular executive action yet, with backing from 59% of voters. That makes it slightly more popular than his declaration of a national emergency on the U.S.-Mexico border, which had 57% backing last week.

Pluralities of voters support Trump’s order promoting the expansion of access to private school vouchers or temporarily suspending the admissions program for refugees.

But voters are more divided over his efforts to eliminate the asylum process, instruct the attorney general to pursue the death penalty whenever possible or withhold federal funding from K-12 schools that recognize transgender identities or teach students about concepts like structural racism, white privilege and unconscious bias.

The bottom line

The federal spending and grant freeze episode, which Musk injected himself into with attempts to access a federal payment system that could allow him to monitor and limit federal spending, had a relatively high level salience: 41% said they had heard “a lot” about it.

That matter, alongside Trump’s controversial response to a passenger airliner’s crash with an Army helicopter, may be weighing on Trump, whose post-victory honeymoon has started to fade. When it comes to his executive actions, his red-meat moves may only take him so far as the electorate is still looking for action on the cost of living concerns they voiced during the 2024 campaign.

Voters’ patience with Musk may be set to follow along a similar track. While many prioritize debt reduction, the stated purpose of Musk’s “DOGE” office, his more dramatic and heavy-handed actions may have a limited audience given the public has already started to shift against him.