When Elon Musk started throwing his full weight, meaning his financial muscle and his social media reach, behind Donald Trump and his bid to return to the White House last year, it wasn鈥檛 entirely clear how big or open his influence would be in an eventual second Trump administration. One month into Trump鈥檚 second term, we can safely answer both of these questions with 鈥渧ery鈥.
Over the past few weeks, Musk has worked as a one-man wrecking ball, applying the infamous Silicon Valley ethos of 鈥渕ove fast and break things鈥 to the U.S. government. His Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has been , slashing jobs, budgets, grants and everything else that Musk and his team deemed inefficient, unworthy or useless.
And while President Trump has so far been supportive of Musk鈥檚 crusade against what he considered needless government spending, that Musk鈥檚 slash-and-burn approach is inflicting serious damage on government agencies, the morale of federal workers and the trust in American institutions, all with little regard for laws, union agreement or civil service protections.
According to , many Americans think that Musk has a little too much influence on the Trump administration, as even Republicans feel like they鈥檙e getting more Musk than they ordered. According to this week鈥檚 results, 42 percent of Republicans think that Musk has a lot of influence within current administration, while just 32 percent actually want him to have a lot of influence. That鈥檚 down from 47 percent just after the November election, showing that Republicans have somewhat soured on Musk over the past few months. Unsurprisingly, the gap is a lot larger among Democrats, where 81 percent see Musk having a lot of influence versus just 5 percent who want him to have that kind of power.
