Thirty-five percent of the public approves of the tech billionaire’s handling of DOGE, while 57 percent disapproves.

Elon Musk delivers remarks as he joins President Donald Trump for an executive order signing in the Oval Office at the White House on Feb. 11, 2025, in Washington. | Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

More Americans are souring on billionaire Elon Musk’s role in President Donald Trump’s White House as the tech mogul sought to identify billions of dollars in savings from the federal government, new polling shows.

According to a Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll released Friday, 35 percent of Americans approve of the tech billionaire’s handling of the Department of Government Efficiency, the Trump administration initiative to reduce fraud, waste and abuse in the federal government, while 57 percent disapprove. That’s up from 49 percent of Americans who had a negative perception of Musk in February.

Little has changed among those who approve of Musk’s job, which stood at 34 percent two months ago. However, the poll finds he is still less popular than Trump, who has a 39 percent approval rating and a 55 percent disapproval rating in the Post’s polling.

Support for Musk is also down by double digits across nearly all demographics, including independents, adults under 30 and people without college degrees.

Asked for comment, White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly released a statement defending Musk’s work.

“President Trump and his administration are delivering on the American people’s mandate to eliminate wasteful spending and make federal agencies more efficient, which includes removing probationary employees who are not mission critical,” she said.

But the results speak to Americans’ feelings about the sweeping cuts to the federal government that the Trump administration is hoping to achieve, even as Musk announced his intention to step back from DOGE and devote more time to running his electric vehicle company, Tesla.

A majority of Americans believe waste in the federal government has either stayed the same (31 percent) or increased (25 percent) under Trump, while 43 percent believe the number has gone down. But respondents were almost evenly split when it comes to fraud: 34 percent say it has increased under Trump, 32 percent say it has decreased and 34 percent say it has stayed the same.

Nearly 60 percent of Americans said the president is going too far in his efforts to reduce the size of the federal government through layoffs, while Trump’s plan to shut down the Department of Education remains largely unpopular — 66 percent of Americans are against it. And cuts to federal funding for medical research — a tactic of the Trump administration’s retaliation against U.S. colleges and universities — also doesn’t sit well with most Americans: 21 percent support, while 77 percent oppose.

The poll surveyed 2,464 adults between April 18 to 22 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.