Americans Divided on Federal Government Downsizing Under Trump-Musk Initiative
A recent wave of national polls reveals a complex and conflicted sentiment among Americans regarding the Trump administration’s efforts to downsize the federal government. While a majority generally supports the concept of a leaner federal bureaucracy, widespread concerns are emerging about the methods employed by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by billionaire Elon Musk, and its impact on federal workers and essential government programs.
President Donald Trump, upon his return to the White House after last November’s election, established DOGE with a clear mandate: to overhaul and significantly reduce the size of the federal government. Trump appointed Musk, the world’s wealthiest individual and the head of Tesla and SpaceX, to spearhead this ambitious initiative.
In the initial two months of the Trump administration, DOGE has undertaken a sweeping review of federal agencies, identifying and eliminating what the White House claims are billions of dollars in wasteful spending. However, DOGE’s approach has not been limited to budgetary cuts. The organization has also implemented substantial workforce reductions, resulting in the dismissal of a significant number of federal employees. These actions have drawn considerable national attention and have triggered a series of legal challenges.
A recent NBC News poll, conducted between March 7-11, indicates that Americans are somewhat receptive to the idea behind DOGE. The poll found that 46% of respondents considered the creation of DOGE to be a good idea, compared to 40% who viewed it negatively. Nevertheless, when asked specifically about their feelings toward DOGE, a larger proportion of respondents, 47%, expressed negative views, while 41% held positive opinions.
A similar trend is apparent in a Reuters/IPSOS survey conducted on March 11-12. This poll revealed that a substantial majority, 59%, of Americans supported downsizing the federal government, compared to 39% who opposed the idea. However, support for the general concept of downsizing did not translate into approval of DOGE’s specific actions. The poll also revealed that 59% of respondents opposed the firing of tens of thousands of federal workers, while only 38% supported these actions. Furthermore, a 50%-38% majority believed that Trump and Musk had gone too far in cutting federal spending.
Despite the growing public unease with DOGE’s approach, Trump has consistently praised Musk’s efforts, including during a recent primetime address to a joint session of Congress. In an interview on Fox News "Sunday Morning Futures" a week ago, Trump lauded Musk as a "real patriot" whose work has "opened a lot of eyes."
However, public sentiment toward Musk himself appears to be increasingly negative. The NBC News poll revealed that only 39% of respondents held a positive view of Musk, while 51% held a negative view. Similarly, the Reuters/Ipsos survey showed that Musk’s favorability rating was underwater, with 38% viewing him favorably and 59% viewing him unfavorably.
A Quinnipiac University national poll, conducted between March 6-10, further underscores the public’s disapproval of the way Musk and DOGE are treating federal employees. The poll found that 60% of respondents disapproved of Musk and DOGE’s handling of federal workers, while only 36% approved. The survey’s release noted that 54% of voters believe that Elon Musk and DOGE are harming the country, while 40% believe they are helping the country.
A CNN poll, conducted between March 6-9, indicated that more than six in ten respondents believed that the cuts implemented by DOGE would go too far and result in the shutdown of important federal programs. Only 37% of respondents believed that the cuts would not go far enough in eliminating fraud and waste in the government.
The accumulation of negative polling data appears to have prompted Trump to adjust his approach to government downsizing. In a recent move, Trump reportedly informed Cabinet secretaries that they, rather than Musk, would be responsible for overseeing department downsizing within their respective agencies. In a social media post, Trump indicated that a more targeted approach would be used, describing it as a "scalpel" rather than a "hatchet" when making government staffing cuts.
These poll numbers seem to indicate that Americans have a very nuanced approach to the concept of downsizing the government. They are, in theory, for it but not necessarily for the methods being employed by Musk and the DOGE. This could be because they are seeing what they consider to be important programs being slashed. They may also be having sympathy for the number of federal workers being affected by these policies. They may also feel that Musk is not qualified to make such sweeping changes to how things work.
The public does not seem to be responding favorably to the idea of such drastic changes in such a quick time period. As such, the government is now scaling back it’s approach to be something more methodical.
It remains to be seen how effective this change will be, but the public seems to indicate that the initial approach was something that they disagreed with.
