Poll: Voters like the idea of DOGE, but Elon Musk and his early results raise red flags
Voters are open, narrowly, to an effort to tackle inefficiencies in government.
Voters are open, narrowly, to an effort to tackle inefficiencies in government. But they are concerned about billionaire Elon Musk and how his Department of Government Efficiency is executing those cuts, according to a national NBC News poll.
Asked whether creating DOGE was a good idea or a bad idea, 46% say the idea was good, 40% say it was bad, and another 13% do not have an opinion. Most voters have a strong opinion: 40% say DOGE is “strongly a good idea,” while 37% say it’s “strongly a bad idea.”
However, when voters are asked more broadly to rate their feelings toward DOGE, the findings flip: 41% say they hold positive views of the effort and 47% hold negative views. And Musk himself is unpopular, with 51% holding negative views of the tech mogul and 39% viewing him positively.
The findings come as the effort to slash the size of the federal government has dominated the early weeks of President Donald Trump’s administration, with cuts to government spending and the federal workforce proceeding at a dizzying pace. Attempts by DOGE to access sensitive information, lay off workers and cancel contracts have sparked a broad range of lawsuits.
Trump has taken note of the controversy around DOGE, posting on social media earlier this month that department secretaries would be in charge of job cuts at their agencies and would use “the ‘scalpel’ rather than the ‘hatchet.’” The post came after a Cabinet meeting in which Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy challenged Musk’s work in their departments.
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