Elon Musk is well underwater in public views of his work for President Donald Trump, according to a new ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll.
Thirty-five percent of Americans said they approve of his job performance for the Trump administration, while 57% said they disapprove, roughly on par with ratings for the president himself.
Resistance to the Trump administration’s cuts to the federal government, spearheaded by Musk through his work at the Department of Government Efficiency, are at the root of his negative ratings in the ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll released Monday.
As reported Sunday, 56% said they think Trump is going too far in laying off federal workers, an effort led by Musk, and as many, 57%, said they think Trump is going too far in closing federal agencies.
Among people who think the layoffs are going too far, Musk has a dismal 6%-89% rating, approve-disapprove. That compares with 72%-16% among those who say the level of layoffs is about right or has not gone far enough.
Other cuts are even less popular.
Sixty-six percent of respondents said they oppose shuttering the Department of Education, and 77% said they oppose reducing federal funding for medical research. Again, those who oppose such cuts take a dim view of Musk’s work.
Perceptions of Musk’s work also are related to views on waste in the federal government. Forty-three percent said they think waste has decreased since Trump took office, and Musk has 67%-26% approval among members of this group.
For those who don’t see a reduction in waste, however, it’s 10%-82%, approve-disapprove. Perceptions of fraud follow a similar pattern. Musk does better with those who said they think fraud in the government has decreased but far worse with the majority (67%) who said it has not.
Partisanship is a related factor in this poll, produced for ABC News by Langer Research Associates with fieldwork by Ipsos.
A mere 4% of Democrats said they approve of Musk’s work, precisely the same as Trump’s approval in this group. Just 32% of independents said they approve. These compare with a 73% approval rating for Musk among Republicans — trailing Trump’s 83%.
Results also show how Musk’s popularity is linked to Trump’s, whose popularity is the lowest for any president at the 100-day mark in available data since 1945.
Eighty percent of those who said they approve of the way Trump is handling his job also approve of the way Musk is handling his. Among those who disapprove of Trump’s performance, 5% said they approve of Musk’s.
Tesla reported last week that its total revenue decreased by 9% from one year earlier and its profits were down 71% over the first three months of this year.
On an investor call this month, Musk said he’d be cutting back his government role in the coming months.
Methodology: This ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll was conducted online via the probability-based Ipsos KnowledgePanel® April 18-22, 2025, in English and Spanish, among a random national sample of 2,464 adults. Partisan divisions are 30%-30%-29%, Democrats-Republicans-independents.
Results have a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points, including the design effect. Error margins are larger for subgroups. Sampling error is not the only source of differences in polls.
The survey was produced for ABC News by Langer Research Associates, with sampling and data collection by Ipsos. See details on ABC News survey methodology here.
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