Elon Musk has been nothing short of a lightning rod for the left ever since he had the audacity to buy Twitter to turn it into (gasp!) a free speech platform that didn’t censor conservative views. And then, after Elon Musk got completely red-pilled and endorsed President Trump's reelection… forget about it.
Probably the only person who has been attacked more than Musk by the Democrats and the mainstream media is Donald Trump. And lately, it seems like Musk is getting it worse for having the gall to do exactly what he said he would do if Trump was elected: make government more efficient.
Make no mistake about it: they’re desperately trying to take him down.
The latest narrative to come out is that his poll numbers have tanked. In fact, according to a new Economist/YouGov poll, even Republicans have soured on Musk.
Really? That can’t be right.
Well, I’ll get back to that. According to the poll, support among Republicans for Musk’s influence in the Trump administration has seen a noticeable decline since November’s election. In November, 47% of Republicans wanted Musk to have “a lot of influence.” That number has since dropped to just 26%.
I just have one question: who are these Republicans, exactly? Musk is fulfilling precisely the role he was brought in to do, and Trump campaigned explicitly on giving him the latitude to do it. Musk, who continues to push for meaningful reforms in our bureaucracy to make government more efficient, is taking criticism for doing what voters wanted when they cast their ballots for Trump.
Related: Could We Be Witnessing the End of Liberal Media?
Among Americans overall, the drop-off is, of course, even starker. In November 2024, 27% of adults wanted Musk to have a lot of influence in the Trump administration. That’s now down to 13%.
“The shift in opinion on Musk comes amid continuing concerns about how much power and influence the unelected tech billionaire has in how the country is run,” says Newsweek.
We keep hearing the word “unelected” a lot lately, too — as if the government hasn’t been predominantly unelected bureaucrats for, I don’t know, our entire lives.
For what it’s worth (and Newsweek buried this in its write-up), the poll shows that Republicans aren’t entirely abandoning Musk, but some are simply questioning the extent of his role. In a curious twist, those Republicans who want Musk to have “a little” influence rose from 29% in November to 43% in February, signaling a softening stance rather than outright rejection.
Meanwhile, the share of Republicans wanting Musk to have no influence at all also climbed slightly, from 12% in November to 17%.
Curiously, Musk’s favorability among Republicans remains overwhelmingly positive at 80%, down barely a point from 81% in November.
Another thing I should point out: YouGov’s final poll of the 2024 election had Kamala Harris ahead of Trump and had her leading in all of the swing states. You remember the swing states, right? Donald Trump won all of them.
But I digress. Clearly, the extent of Musk’s influence is the core issue — not whether Republicans support him, but how far they’re willing to let Musk steer the ship. In the end, Musk is a disruptor, and that’s what both Trump and his voters hired him to be. I’m not convinced that public opinion has shifted all that much among Republicans, and the real takeaway here is not to allow ourselves to be swayed by the same media-manufactured hysteria that drives the left.
Musk isn’t the problem; he’s the solution we asked for. It’s time for Republicans to decide whether they want real reform or they’re content with politics as usual.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member