Trump has spent his first months back in office seeking to sharply cut spending and reduce the federal workforce. The public’s views of that effort and Elon Musk, to whom Trump has given a prominent role, are largely negative.
Just 35% of Americans express a positive view of Musk, with 53% rating him negatively and 11% offering no opinion – making him both better known and more substantially unpopular than Vice President JD Vance (whom 33% of Americans rate favorably and 44% unfavorably, with 23% having no opinion.) Roughly 6 in 10 Americans say that Musk has neither the right experience nor the right judgment to make changes to the way the government works. There is uneasiness about Musk even among some of the president’s supporters: 28% of those who see Trump’s changes to the government as necessary doubt the tech billionaire has the judgment to carry them out.
A 55% majority of Americans say that the Trump administration’s changes to the federal government are being made largely to advance his agenda, with 45% calling the changes necessary to ensure the government functions properly.
Asked to weigh whether they’re more concerned about the Trump administration’s cuts to the federal government going too far or not far enough, 62% of Americans say they’re more worried about the former and fear important programs being shut down. The other 37% say they’re more worried about the cuts not going far enough in eliminating fraud and waste in the federal government. Nine in 10 Democrats and 69% of independents say they’re more concerned about losing important federal programs, while 73% of Republicans say they’re more concerned that fraud and waste will remain an issue in the government.
We’re currently watching the saga of the Continuing Resolution to keep the government open until September unfold in the Senate. The Democrats can filibuster this one but it’s unclear if they are going to be willing to do it. (I know….)
I believe they should filibuster with one demand: Trump must get rid of Musk and DOGE. Nothing less. If he does that they will vote for the CR. I don’t expect he will do it but after a period of him defending his “right”to have a billionaire slashing the government and angering the people even more, the Democrats could finally agree to break the filibuster making it clear that Trump is willing to put his billionaire boyfriend ahead of the American people.
There is such a thing as “losing well” and I think those numbers above show that the public is not happy with Trump’s buddy destroying the federal government. They should use the meager leverage they have to highlight that to the whole country and push Trump’s approval ratings even lower.