Elon Musk used to be a nerd loved by the public. But a MAGA turn has seen his favorability plummet

Elon Musk may have gotten a job as the head of Donald Trump’s newly created Department of Government Efficiency, but not many people are happy about it, a new surveys found.

More than half — 53 percent — of registered voters disapprove of Musk playing a prominent role in the second Trump administration, while only 39 percent approve, according to a January 29 poll from Quinnipiac University.

Musk’s popularity appears to have plummeted with his MAGA rise, according to CNN’s data reporter Harry Enten. The world’s richest person-turned-special government employee now boasts a favorability rating of -11 points, significantly down from +29 points he held tin 2016, Enten said.

Times were different for Musk and his perception nine years ago. He hadn’t yet purchased Twitter, which he then renamed X. He hadn’t yet been forced to step down as chairman of Tesla. He hadn’t yet, perhaps most significantly, he hadn’t been a full MAGA backer.

The South African entrepreneur entered the public eye as the genius behind both PayPal and Space X. He arguably became a household name after his involvement in Tesla, where he now serves as CEO decades after becoming an early investor.

“I don’t really have strong feelings except that hopefully Trump doesn’t get the nomination of the Republican Party because I think that wouldn’t be good…that would be a bit embarrassing,” Musk said at a 2015 Vanity Fair panel discussion. “I get involved in politics as little as possible,” he added.

He didn’t contribute to either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump during their 2016 race, according to Business Insider, but in previous cycles, he donated to both Republican and Democratic campaigns.

During Trump’s first term, the tech billionaire served on some of his presidential advisory councils in June 2017 after the then-president announced his plans to withdraw from the Paris climate accord.

Months after he bought Twitter in 2022, Musk suggested it was “time for Trump to hang up his hat & sail into the sunset” after the Republican slammed Musk as a “bulls*** artist.” However, days later, the tech mogul revealed that he had voted Republican for the first time and predicted a “massive red wave in 2022.”

That November, Musk reinstated Trump’s X account, which had been banned since the Capitol riot in January 2021. The billionaire was highly critical of Biden during his presidency; in January 2024 he said that while he voted for Joe Biden in 2020, he didn’t plan on voting for him again.

Trump and Musk have become closely aligned in recent months and it has led to 53 percent of people disapproving of the billionaire’s role in the administration, a poll found (USA TODAY Sports via Reuters Con)

Last May, after a New York jury found Trump guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records, Musk took to X to convey his disapproval of the conviction: “Indeed, great damage was done today to the public’s faith in the American legal system. If a former President can be criminally convicted over such a trivial matter – motivated by politics, rather than justice – then anyone is at risk of a similar fate.”

Although last March he said he didn’t plan on donating to either of the presidential campaigns during the last cycle, Musk ended up contributing more than $290 million to Donald Trump and his MAGA allies on the campaign trail last year. He became much more vocal and much more active after a gunman tried to take Trump’s life during a rally in a Pennsylvania field.

Now, eight years after Musk left the presidential advisory councils, Trump has once again ordered the withdrawal from the Paris climate treaty. But this time, Musk is sticking around as the head of DOGE.

Despite working at a non-government agency, Musk now has access to the Treasury Department’s payment systems that contain sensitive personal information about U.S. taxpayers and has taken steps to shutter the U.S. Agency for International Development. Musk is now so pro-MAGA that he has even urged Europe to follow suit and create its own “MEGA” movement: Make Europe Great Again.

In a post on X earlier this week, Musk touted all Trump has done in his first few weeks in office: “At this rate of achievement, not only should President @realDonaldTrump be on Mount Rushmore, I want to personally work the chisel!”