The most radical thing about Elon Musk this month is his staggering unpopularity.
Public opinion of the world’s richest man fell by 66 points since his foray into politics, according to a CNN poll released Thursday.
Musk was the most popular person according to a Bloomberg poll in June 2016—but nearly a decade later, his ratings have tanked. This month, just 23 percent of those polled viewed Musk favorably, with 60 percent having an unfavorable opinion of him, making net favorable opinion of the conservative tech tycoon -37 points, CNN reported. Much of that has happened over the past four months, during which his favorability ratings with the GOP have sunk by 55 points.
His sagging numbers have affected the viability of Musk’s third party dreams: Americans report that while they want a third party as an alternative to Democrats and Republicans, they decidedly do not want one started by Musk. Just 22 percent of voters actually favored a Musk-run third party, while 74 percent opposed it, according to CNN.
Other recent reports found similar results. A YouGov poll released Monday found that while nearly half of surveyed Americans—45 percent—felt that a successful third party was imperative for the country, just 11 percent of those polled said they would support Musk’s.
While Americans have long complained of red tape and waste at the upper echelons of the federal government, they did not enjoy the metaphorical “chainsaw” that Musk’s DOGE took to federal agencies and their services. Americans especially did not like Musk’s involvement, a New York Times review of several surveys reported in April.
Musk’s place in American politics has become particularly tenuous since he publicly severed ties with Donald Trump last month, trying (and failing) to kill the president’s “big, beautiful bill” and accusing the president of being involved with child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. Despite Musk threatening to primary all Republicans who supported the budget bill, he was unable to sway a single vote.
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