When Elon Musk started throwing his full weight, meaning his financial muscle and his social media reach, behind Donald Trump and his bid to return to the White House last year, it wasn’t entirely clear how big or open his influence would be in an eventual second Trump administration. One month into Trump’s second term, we can safely answer both of these questions with “very”.
Over the past few weeks, Musk has worked as a one-man wrecking ball, applying the infamous Silicon Valley ethos of “move fast and break things” to the U.S. government. His Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has been tearing through government agencies, slashing jobs, budgets, grants and everything else that Musk and his team deemed inefficient, unworthy or useless.
And while President Trump has so far been supportive of Musk’s crusade against what he considered needless government spending, critics argue that Musk’s slash-and-burn approach is inflicting serious damage on government agencies, the morale of federal workers and the trust in American institutions, all with little regard for laws, union agreement or civil service protections.
According to polling from YouGov and The Economist, many Americans think that Musk has a little too much influence on the Trump administration, as even Republicans feel like they’re getting more Musk than they ordered. According to this week’s results, 42 percent of Republicans think that Musk has a lot of influence within current administration, while just 32 percent actually want him to have a lot of influence. That’s down from 47 percent just after the November election, showing that Republicans have somewhat soured on Musk over the past few months. Unsurprisingly, the gap is a lot larger among Democrats, where 81 percent see Musk having a lot of influence versus just 5 percent who want him to have that kind of power.
