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By Martha McHardy
US News Reporter
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New polling data shows that Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is gaining traction among voters. Recent polls have shown mainly negative results for Musk.
Newsweek reached out to Musk through X for comment via email.
Why It Matters
The shift in opinion on Musk comes amid continuing concerns about how much power and influence the unelected tech billionaire has in how the country is run. Some have even gone as far as to say that Musk is the "real president," a claim that the White House has denied.
Read More on Politics
President Donald Trump created DOGE in an executive order on his first day in office. The department, mandated by the U.S. electorate, is charged with "modernizing Federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity." However, the exact scope of DOGE's power is still unclear.
DOGE has drawn sharp scrutiny for seeking unfettered access to the internal data of government agencies, including the Labor Department, U.S. Treasury, Office of Personnel Management, General Services Administration, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the Small Business Administration and more.
It has also come under fire for its attempts to dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) after Musk claimed that Trump agreed that the agency should be shut down.
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What To Know
According to the latest Trafalgar Group and Insider Advantage poll, conducted between February 7-9, 49 percent approve of the job Musk is doing at DOGE, while 44 percent disapprove.
The poll also shows positive results for Trump. Some 54 percent approve of the job the president is doing, while 45 percent disapprove. The poll surveyed 1,321 voters with a margin of error of 2.98 percent.
This represents a departure from other recent polls, which have mainly been positive for Trump but negative for Musk. Polls currently show that Trump is more popular than ever. For example, the latest polling from Emerson College, conducted between January 27 and 28 among 1,000 registered voters, showed that Trump's approval rating stands at 49 percent, while 41 percent disapprove. The poll had a margin of error of +/-3 percentage points.
That marks an increase for Trump from his first term, when Emerson College polling showed that his approval rating peaked at 48 percent in August 2020. Trump left office in January 2021 with the lowest rating of his presidency, 34 percent, after the January 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Meanwhile, Trump's favorability rating has also seen historic highs recently, according to 538's tracker, which shows his net favorability rating at -0.8, up from a low of -18 in February 2021.
However, recent polls have not been as favorable for Musk. In a YouGov/The Economist poll conducted among 1,604 Americans from February 2 to 4, 51 percent of respondents believe Musk has "a lot" of influence on the Trump administration. Only 13 percent want him to have a high amount of influence, and 46 percent said they want him to have no influence.
Another poll, conducted by Morning Consult poll among 2,000 registered voters and published on February 5, found that 46 percent of Americans don't approve of Musk's involvement in the government, compared with 41 percent who do. The survey from The Economist/YouGov showed that the number of Republicans who want Musk to have "a lot of influence" currently stands at 26 percent, down from 47 percent in a previous poll conducted soon after Trump's victory.
Despite Musk's declining popularity, most Americans still believe that this won't have much impact on his role in the government and that he will continue to have a lot of influence in the Trump administration. In The Economist/YouGov survey, 51 percent of adults, including 35 percent of Republicans, said Musk would have a lot of influence.
The White House says Musk is classified as a special government employee, which the Justice Department defines as someone who "works, or is expected to work, for the government for 130 days or less in a 365-day period" with or without being paid.
What People Are Saying
Matt Towery of InsiderAdvantage and Robert Cahaly of Trafalgar Group said: "Legacy media and academic surveys concerning President Trump's approval rating are just starting to pick up on Trump's stronger ratings, which we documented immediately after he was sworn into office. Trump is enjoying much stronger support from Republicans, Independents, and even Democrats, than at this point in his first term. Of interest has been the media's focus on Musk, along with legacy media/polling reports of the last few weeks, purporting to show declining support for Musk among Republicans.
"Their questions have generally centered upon opinion of Musk playing a large role in Trump's administration, versus a straight up approve/disapprove question as to Musk and his efforts in leading DOGE. When the proper question is asked, Republican approval of Musk approaches eighty percent. And overall approval for his job performance approached fifty percent."
Grant Davis Reeher, a professor of political science at Syracuse University, told Newsweek: "Musk has a verbal style similar to President Trump's, but he doesn't have the same level of devotion from the public, so more of what he says is going to turn people off rather than on. Add to that his controversial hand gesture and the reports of his access to data in the Treasury payment system, and it's not surprising that his own public support has been shown to be thinner rather than deeper."
The White House may get Musk to police his behavior and rhetoric more carefully, but he may not get "pitched out of the boat as readily as a more typical political figure might if they started to become a drag on the administration," Reeher said.
What Happens Next
Musk's involvement is expected to continue generating backlash from Democrats, who have pushed back against his access to Treasury payments data and his efforts to dismantle USAID.
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