‘Overwhelmingly popular’: Elon Musk touts Americans’ DOGE support

Recent national polling shows Republicans, Democrats split on support for DOGE

Elon Musk is taking his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) for a victory lap, touting a new poll that suggests massive support for the Trump administration initiative.

The Harvard CAPS-Harris poll revealed a majority of Americans support reducing wasteful government spending. Most voters agree there should be a government agency dedicated to efficiency and that DOGE is helping to make major spending cuts, the nonprobability-based poll found.

“Polls show that @DOGE is overwhelmingly POPULAR and that government spending should be reduced by at least $1 trillion!!” Musk wrote on X.

The White House and Musk have shared the results on social media, pointing to the new polling as evidence that “reducing government waste & fraud is strongly supported by the people,” as Musk wrote in an X post.

Elon Musk speaks during an event in the Oval Office with President Donald Trump at the White House, Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025, in Washington. (AP Images)

President Donald Trump shared the favorable poll on his Truth Social account, and Musk shared a screenshot of Trump’s post on his X account.

The Harvard CAPS-Harris poll found a majority of voters believe the government’s debt is unsustainable and that the government should try to cut expenses. A vast majority agreed “government expenditures are filled with waste and agree with cutting $1 trillion in expenses.”

Most people polled said DOGE employees should not have access to Americans’ sensitive information and that court challenges to DOGE are based on the law and are not politically motivated.

Recent national polling suggests Musk and DOGE have garnered the support of Republicans and the disapproval of Democrats.

The Feb. 13-19 Washington Post-Ipsos poll was less favorable for Musk and his “DOGE boys” as approval split along ideological lines, with 70% of Republicans and 6% of Democrats approving of Musk’s job. Fewer Republicans, at 56%, approved of Musk halting federal government programs.

Elon Musk speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Feb. 20, 2025. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

Further, 55% of voters said Musk has too much power, according to the Quinnipiac University poll released Feb. 19. Once again, the results fall upon party lines, with 78% of Republicans polled saying Musk has the right amount of power and 96% of Democrats saying he has too much power.

The AP-NORC poll released Jan. 24 also found Republicans are more likely to favor DOGE than Democrats. However, the poll found the majority of the public “believe corruption, inefficiency and red tape are major problems in the federal government,” which is consistent with the new Harvard CAPS-Harris poll.

A CNN poll conducted by SSRS found that 54% of voters said Musk’s prominent role in Trump’s administration is a “bad thing.”

Musk’s posts celebrating his new favorable polling come on the heels of his latest DOGE initiative: Federal employees received an email on Saturday instructing them to respond with “what they got done last week” or lose their job.

President Donald Trump speaks as Elon Musk, joined by his son, listens in the Oval Office on Feb. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

“Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump’s instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week. Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation,” Musk said.

“To be clear, the bar is very low here. An email with some bullet points that make any sense at all is acceptable! Should take less than 5 mins to write,” Musk added.

Darin Selnick of the Department of Defense and Kash Patel of the FBI told their employees they did not need to comply with Musk’s request. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy followed the assignment, submitting his accomplishments in a post.

Elon Musk celebrates onstage as he joins then-presidential candidate Donald Trump during a campaign rally in Butler, Pa. (JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)

“Mr. President, 5 things I did last week… Looking forward to another week of fighting for Americans,” Duffy wrote.

Trump, in a Truth Social post ahead of Musk’s new email directive, said the DOGE leader is “doing a great job,” adding he would “like to see him get more aggressive.”

DOGE’s jarring revelations about where American taxpayer dollars are going have dominated headlines during Trump’s first month back in the White House. Republicans have embraced Musk’s commitment to government efficiency as many new Cabinet members and Republican governors establish their own DOGE departments.

Meanwhile, Musk’s massive layoffs of government employees and department cuts have created outrage among Democrats in Washington. Democrats have led weekly protests against DOGE and Musk’s political power, calling Trump’s executive actions a “constitutional crisis.”