Elon Musk’s Image Plumbs New Depths

Elon Musk was the star of the show in the fight over a Wisconsin Supreme Court seat this month, with the billionaire campaigning and spending millions for the Republican-backed jurist and the Democratic-backed candidate leaning into grassroots concerns about the influence of the world’s richest man on American politics.

We can’t be sure that the outcome of that race, a double-digit win for the Democratic-backed candidate, had much to do with his intervention. But it’s easy to see why elected Republicans would like to see the billionaire White House adviser opt for a lower-profile approach: Musk is more unpopular than ever, and even more toxic than President Donald Trump.

According to our latest survey, 54% of voters view Musk unfavorably, up from 45% in a survey conducted immediately after the November election. That includes double-digit increases to his unfavorability rating among Democrats (from 71% to 83%) and independent voters (48% to 59%), along with a modest uptick among Republican voters.

Musk, whose 99% name recognition is just shy of the president’s, also now elicits as strong of a negative reaction from critics, with similar shares of Democrats and independents expressing “very unfavorable” views about the two figures. And that isn’t made up for by equally positive graces on the right, leaving his popularity far weaker than Trump’s.

Republican voters are 76 points more likely to view Trump favorably than unfavorably (87% to 11%), compared with a 52-point spread between those two figures regarding Musk (73% to 21%). The GOP base is also far more likely to hold strongly favorable views of Trump than Musk (67% to 47%), leaving his strength on his popularity on the right more akin to that of the average Republican in Congress (50%) than the president’s.

Compounding the issue is Musk’s ubiquitous presence in the news.

Over the past decade, Trump has enjoyed a virtual monopoly on the news cycle. But in recent months, Musk has held his own, with nearly as many voters reporting hearing something about him as Trump. And what they’ve heard has consistently erred negative over positive.

The bottom line

The longer Musk remains dominant in America’s political conversation, the greater the risks for Trump and his party. That much is obvious.

But as Tesla’s latest earnings report showed, there are also plenty of self-interested reasons for Musk, its CEO, to step back.

Musk’s association with Trump appears largely baked into Americans’ beliefs, and it’s less likely that his popularity recovers significantly than worsens. But he can still minimize damage in foreign markets, where he’s lesser known.

Then there’s the political threat to his bottom line. Musk’s toxicity with the liberal base risks consequences beyond elections. There’s little to nothing stopping blue states from taking a fresh look now at any subsidies it offers Tesla. And should Democrats win a congressional majority next year, that scrutiny would be likely to intensify — marking a potential threat as Musk’s SpaceX fights other companies for market dominance, with billions of dollars worth of government contracts at stake.

A return to a comparatively private life won’t guarantee an uptick in fortunes for Musk, his companies or the Republican Party’s electoral prospects, but it appears to beat the alternative.