Elon Musk has spent the past three months helping President Donald Trump destroy vital parts of the U.S. federal government. The Tesla CEO unlawfully dismantled USAID, has gained access to highly sensitive personal data on Americans, and helped purge at least 120,000 government workers. Musk has also given his own businesses preferential treatment, creating a massive conflict of interest. And most Americans really don’t like any of it, according to new polling.
Only 35% of Americans approve of the way Musk is handling his job in the Trump administration, according to polling conducted by Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos. Fifty-seven percent of Americans say they disapprove of Musk. And if you don’t like what Musk is doing, you really don’t like it, with 46% strongly disapproving of Musk’s job rather than just “somewhat” disapproving.
President Trump fared better than Musk in the new poll, but not by much. Just 39% of Americans approve of the job he’s doing, while 55% disapprove. A poll by CNN over the weekend showed very similar numbers, with Trump’s approval at 41%, the lowest of any newly elected president’s first 100 days going back to the 1950s.
Musk’s approval numbers were best among American men, with 38% saying they like what he’s doing, while 56% of men dislike Musk. But Musk’s popularity with women is truly abysmal, with just 29% saying they approve of the billionaire’s job in government, and 60% saying they disapprove.
Musk’s popularity was highest with people aged 50-64, roughly the Gen X demographic, though even that generation doesn’t like him that much. Just 42% of Gen X in the poll said they approve of Musk, while 52% say they disapprove. The billionaire was least popular with people aged 18-29, with 62% disapproving of Musk and only 25% saying they approve.
Musk was also extremely unpopular with those who have advanced degrees. A whopping 66% of Americans with postgraduate degrees disapprove of Musk, but there was no demographic broken up by education level that liked what Musk was doing. Fifty-five percent of Americans with no college degree say they disapprove of the things Musk is doing to destroy the government.
Broken down by race, the crosstabs become even more stark. Only 11% of Black Americans approve of Musk, with 74% disapproving. Only 26% of Hispanics approve of Musk, with 64% disapproving. And that shouldn’t be a shock, given Musk’s extremely racist rhetoric on social media. As for white Americans, Musk polls better, but he’s still not popular. Only 43% approve and 50% disapprove.
The numbers are interesting but perhaps not altogether surprising, no matter how you slice them. Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has been taking a chainsaw to the federal government with absolutely no benefits to show for it. The billionaire claims he’s tackling “waste, fraud, and abuse,” but has simply been unilaterally cancelling programs, contracts, and entire agencies that he doesn’t like. Musk doesn’t have the legal authority to do any of that, but that hasn’t stopped him.
In fact, Trump’s government has argued in court that DOGE isn’t subject to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) because it’s merely advising and not making cuts by itself. That assertion is contradicted by just about everything Musk says publicly as he takes credit for destroying things. Congress alone has the power to create and destroy agencies, but as just one example, Musk has taken credit for abolishing USAID, a move that’s expected to kill literally tens of millions of people around the world, according to a recent study in The Lancet.
The study estimates that over the next 15 years, destroying USAID will cause an estimated 15.2 million more AIDS deaths, 2.2 million additional deaths from tuberculosis, and 7.9 million more child deaths from other causes. The study also estimated that there will be an additional 40-55 million unplanned pregnancies and about 12-16 million unsafe abortions.
What do the American taxpayers have to show for DOGE’s actions? At least we’ll all be getting fat refund checks from all this supposed government savings, right? Nope. The Partnership for Public Service has found that Musk’s chaos in federal hiring will cost about $135 billion in firings, re-hirings, paid leave, and lost productivity, as the New York Times reported. And that doesn’t even count the massive legal expenditures happening right now as federal workers fight the illegal firings. All of the “savings” Musk claims to make with each new thing he destroys have enormous costs that aren’t immediately obvious.
Nobody is getting DOGE checks, and government services are getting slashed. Sounds like the worst of both worlds. No wonder Musk is so unpopular, even if had hadn’t started his new job in government by making two Nazi-style salutes. He’s not exactly a charmer.
