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A2 u.s. news
Monday 28 april 2025
As Musk gained power in Washington, his popularity has fallen,

an AP-NORC poll finds

By CHRIS MEGERIAN two-thirds of adults believe He is expected to start
and AMELIA THOMSON- Musk has held too much dedicating more time to
DEVEAUX influence over the fed- Tesla, his electric auto-
Associated Press eral government during maker that has suffered
WASHINGTON (AP) — Elon the past few months — al- plummeting revenue while
Musk spent years building though that influence may he was working for Trump.
cachet as a business titan be coming to an end. The Musk told investors on a re-
and tech visionary, brush- billionaire entrepreneur is cent conference call that
ing aside critics and skep- expected to leave his ad- "now that the major work
tics to become the richest ministration job in the com- of establishing the Depart-
person on the planet. ing weeks. ment of Government Effi-
But as Musk gained power Musk is noticeably less ciency is done," he expects
in Washington in recent popular than the overall to spend just "a day or two
months, his popularity has effort to pare back the per week on government
waned, according to a poll government workforce, matters."
from The Associated Press- Elon Musk flashes his T-shirt that reads "DOGE" to the media which Trump has described Musk, in his work for the
NORC Center for Public Af- as he walks on South Lawn of the White House, in Washington, as bloated and corrupt. administration, has contin-
fairs Research. March 9, 2025. About half of U.S. adults ued a political evolution
Just 33% of U.S. adults have Associated Press believe the Republican toward the right. Although
a favorable view of Musk, and overhaul the federal reputation," said Ernest president has gone too far the South African-born en-
the chain-saw-wielding, government. That share is Pereira, 27, a Democrat on reducing the size of the trepreneur was never easy
late-night-posting, cam- down from 41% in Decem- who works as a lab techni- federal workforce, while to categorize ideologically,
paign-hat-wearing public ber. cian in North Carolina. "He roughly 3 in 10 think he is on he championed the fight
face of President Donald "It was a shame that he bought into his own hype." target and 14% want him against climate change
Trump's efforts to downsize crashed and burned his The poll found that about to go even further. and often supported Dem-
Retiree Susan Wolf, 75, of ocratic candidates.
Pennsylvania, believes the Now he criticizes "the woke
federal government is too mind virus" and warns of the
big but Musk has "made a collapse of Western civiliza-
mess of everything." tion from the threats of il-
"I don't trust him," she said. legal migration and excess
"I don't think he knows what government spending.
he's doing." Musk's increasingly conser-
Wolf, who is not registered vative politics are reflected
with a political party, said in the polling. Only about
Musk's private sector suc- 2 in 10 independents and
cess does not translate to about 1 in 10 Democrats
Washington. view Musk favorably, com-
"He thinks you run a gov- pared with about 7 in 10
ernment like you run a Republicans.
business. And you don't do In addition, while about 7
that," she said. "One is for in 10 independents and
the benefit of the people, about 9 in 10 Democrats
and the other is for the believe Musk has too much
benefit of the corporation." influence, only about 4 in
Much of the downsizing 10 Republicans feel that
has been done through so- way.
called the Department of Mark Collins, 67, a ware-
Government Efficiency, or house manager from Mich-
DOGE, which was Musk's igan who has leaned Re-
brainchild during last year's publican in recent years,
campaign. Thousands of said Musk "runs a nice, tight
federal employees have ship" at his companies,
been fired or pushed to "and the government defi-
quit, contracts have been nitely needs tightening up."
canceled and entire agen- "He's cleaning up all the
cies have been brought to trash," he said. "I love what
a standstill. he's doing."
Musk has succeeded in Republicans are much less
providing a dose of shock likely than Democrats to be
therapy to the federal worried about being affect-
government, but he has ed by recent cuts to fed-
fallen short of other goals. eral government agencies,
After talking about cut- services or grants. Just 11%
ting spending by $1 trillion, said they are "extremely" or
he has set a much lower "very" concerned that they
target of $150 billion. Even or someone they know will
reaching that amount be affected, while about
could prove challenging, two-thirds of Democrats
and DOGE has regularly and 44% of independents
overstated its progress. have those fears.q