Most in new poll disapprove of Musk's role in Trump administration

Most registered voters disapprove of tech billionaire Elon Musk’s role in the Trump administration, according to a poll released Thursday.

In the survey from Quinnipiac University, 53 percent of respondents said they are not in favor “of Elon Musk playing a prominent role in the Trump administration,” while 39 percent said they are in favor of the Tesla and SpaceX CEO playing a prominent role in the Trump administration.

Musk has been especially close with President Trump in the past year, backing his 2024 bid for the presidency heavily and appearing on stage at some of his rallies. Musk was tapped to lead the president’s “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE), which Trump described in November as aiming to “slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures” and restructure federal agencies.

Musk also recently stirred controversy with a gesture he made during a celebratory event for Trump last week that some criticized as a Nazi salute. He was slammed by a political editor for a German newspaper over the gesture, with a headline on the editor’s column reading, “A Hitler Salute is a Hitler Salute is a Hitler Salute.”

“The gesture speaks for itself; it’s documented on video. Those who want to see something else in it, who don’t want to see a Hitler salute, do so at their own risk,” Lenz Jacobsen wrote.

Overall, 43 percent of respondents in the Quinnipiac Poll said they are in favor “of how President Trump is handling the staffing of his administration,” with 45 percent saying the opposite.

The Quinnipiac poll surveyed 1,019 people Jan. 23-27 and has a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.

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