Musk Loses Credibility With GOP Voters Amid Trump Feud

Billionaire Elon Musk’s brief stint as a White House adviser and leader of President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency initiative hardened his toxicity with voters on the left and in the middle of America’s political divide.

But his image has sunk even further after a very public fight with Trump centered on his critiques of the GOP’s major legislative priority, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, this time driven by Republican voters.

According to our latest weekly tracking data, Musk is less popular than ever, with 55% of voters expressing unfavorable views (up 4 percentage points over the past week) compared with 37% who said they hold favorable opinions (down 3 points).

While Musk remains quite popular with Republicans, his net favorability rating — the shares with favorable views minus the share with unfavorable views — fell 19 points, which wasn’t made up for by a mild, 7-point improvement among Democratic voters.

That’s not to say that Musk is the only Republican figure left damaged by last week’s back and forth, which came after he slammed the Republican trifecta’s major legislative effort, calling it a “disgusting abomination” that would “massively increase the already gigantic budget deficit.” (That point was backed up by the Congressional Budget Office, which estimated that the bill would increase the deficit by $2.4 trillion over a decade.)

Our weekend survey shows that criticism has broken through, with 68% of voters (including similar shares of Democrats and Republicans) saying they had heard at least something about Musk’s criticisms — roughly the same share who reported hearing anything at all about the bill.

As GOP lawmakers press on with their efforts to pass their party’s bill, our ongoing tracking of support suggests that some Americans, including Republicans, are internalizing Musk’s criticism far more than they did when lower-profile conservative lawmakers were raising similar concerns.

Just 36% of voters support the bill, tying a record low, while 51% oppose it, a record-high share that also includes a record-high 24% of GOP voters.

And notably, as we flagged in our recent Morning Consult Politics newsletter, voter trust in congressional Republicans’ handling of the national debt has dipped recently, another sign that the spending-related criticism is breaking through.

The bottom line

While it appears that Musk’s criticism is resonating with some conservatives on Capitol Hill, it’s far too early to say whether his stance will damage its prospects for passage — or whether his influence among conservative voters will last. And despite Musk’s own misgivings about the bill, he’s very likely to be much better off if it ends up on Trump’s desk.

As our latest trends suggest, effectively killing the GOP’s signature legislation would probably help Musk regain some supporters on the left, but not enough to counteract his declining capital on the right, marking a lose-lose scenario for a man who leads companies heavily leveraged in government contracts that Trump could threaten, whose company Tesla’s global reputation is in tatters, and is facing a reportedly spooked board of investors.

To put it simply, making enemies of both of America’s two major political parties is not a good place for any businessman to be, especially one as famous as Musk. The data continues to suggest the billionaire would be better off stepping away from the spotlight and focusing on his businesses.