Trump-Musk war of words hurts billionaire’s standing with GOP voters

The war of words between President Donald Trump and Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, appears to be over, and there are signs of some reconciliation.

However, a new poll suggests that the verbal attacks by Musk, who spent the first four months of Trump’s second administration as a special White House advisor steering the recently created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), have hurt his standing among Republicans.

Sixty-two percent of Republicans hold a favorable opinion of Musk, the billionaire CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, according to a Quinnipiac University national poll released on Wednesday.

That is down 16 points from a Quinnipiac survey in March, when 78% of Republicans viewed Musk in a favorable way.

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Among all voters, 30% held a favorable opinion of Musk, with 57% viewing him unfavorably. Favorable opinions of Musk dropped six points from Quinnipiac’s March survey, with the unfavorable rating holding steady.

Musk went all in for Trump last summer and autumn. He endorsed the then-GOP presidential nominee in July right after the assassination attempt against Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania.

MUSKS SAYS HIS SOCIAL MEDIA POSTS ATTACKING TRUMP ‘WENT TOO FAR’

Musk became the top donor of the 2024 election cycle, dishing out nearly $300 million in support of Trump’s bid through America PAC, a mostly Musk-funded super PAC aligned with Trump.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk jumps on stage Oct. 5, 2024, as he joins then-former President Donald Trump during a campaign rally at the site of an assassination attempt on Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania. (JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)

Trump named Musk to steer DOGE soon after the November election, and the president repeatedly praised Musk during his headline-making and controversial tenure at DOGE.

The feud broke out days after Musk left the White House late last month, as he dubbed the administration’s massive landmark spending bill – which Trump calls his “big, beautiful bill” – a “disgusting abomination,” which he said would sink the nation into unsustainable debt.

Musk also argued that Trump would not have won last year’s presidential election without all his support. 

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Trump and Musk traded fire with blistering social media posts, with Musk even claiming without evidence that the government was concealing information about Trump’s association with infamous pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Musk later deleted the post.

Musk on Wednesday wrote on his well-watched X account, “I regret some of my posts about President @realDonaldTrump last week. They went too far.”

Trump said in a podcast interview with the New York Post that was published on Wednesday that “things like that happen. I don’t blame him for anything.”

However, when asked about Musk’s apology as he spoke with reporters later in the day, the president said “I really haven’t thought too much about it.”

During his months at DOGE, Musk aimed, but fell far short, of trimming $2 trillion from the federal government’s budget.

According to the Quinnipiac poll, 38% of voters said that Musk did an excellent or good job at DOGE, with 57% describing his tenure as not so good or poor.

However, 80% of Republicans questioned said Musk’s work was excellent or good, with just 13% viewing his tenure at DOGE as not so good or poor.

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“Though Musk isn’t as popular with Republicans as he once was, he and DOGE get a hearty high five from a healthy majority of Republicans,” Quinnpiac University polling analyst Tim Malloy said in a statement.

The Quinnipiac poll was conducted June 5-9, with 1,265 registered voters across the country questioned. The survey’s overall sampling error is plus or minus 2.8 percentage points.