Washington (AP) – Elon Musk I have spent years building a cachet as a titan and technological visionary company, bursting criticism and skeptics to become the richest person on the planet.
But while Musk has taken power in Washington in recent months, its popularity has decreased, according to a survey of The Associated Press-Noc Center for Public Affairs Research.
Only 33% of American adults have a favorable vision of musk, the to brandish chain saw,, late posting,, cagasin President’s public face Donald Trump efforts to reduce and revise the federal government. This share is down 41% in December.
“It was a pity that he crushed and burned his reputation,” said Ernest Pereira, 27, a democrat who works as a laboratory technician in North Carolina. “He bought his own media threw.”
The survey has revealed that around two thirds of adults think that Musk has had too much influence on the federal government in recent months – although this influence can end. The billionaire entrepreneur is expected to leave his job in the administration in the coming weeks.
Musk is significantly less popular than the overall effort for shave the government’s workforcethat Trump described as swollen and corrupt. About half of American adults think that the republican president went too far to reduce the size of the federal workforce, while around 3 out of 10 think that it is on the target and 14% want it to go even further.
The 75 -year -old Susan Wolf retirement from Pennsylvania believes that the federal government is too big but Musk “made a mess of everything”.
“I don’t trust him,” she said. “I don’t think he knows what he is doing.”
Wolf, which is not registered with a political party, said that the success of Musk’s private sector is not reflected in Washington.
“He thinks that you are directing a government as you run a business. And you don’t do it,” she said. “One is for the benefit of the people, and the other is for the benefit of society.”
A large part of the reduction in the workforce was carried out by what is called The Ministry of Government EffectivenessOr Doge, which was an original Musk idea during last year’s campaign. Thousands of federal employees have been dismissed or pushed to stop, contracts have been canceled and entire agencies have been stopped.
Musk managed to ensure a dose of shock therapy in the federal government, but it is below other objectives. After talking about reducing spending by $ 1 Billion, he set a much lower target of $ 150 billion. Even reaching this amount could be difficult, and Doge has regularly overestimated its progress.
It should start spending more time to Tesla, its electric manufacturer who has suffered from falling income While he was working for Trump. Musk told investors at a recent conference call that “now that the major creation of the Government Ministry is done”, he expects to spend “a day or two per week on government issues”.
Musk, in his work for the administration, continued a political evolution to the right. Although the contractor of South African origin has never been easy to classify ideologically, he defended the fight against climate change and often supported Democratic candidates.
Now he criticizes “the awakened spirit virus” and warns the collapse of Western civilization of threats of illegal migration and excess expenses.
Musk’s increasingly conservative policy is reflected in the survey. Only around 2 independents out of 10 and around 1 out of 10 democrats see Musk favorably, compared to around 7 out of 10 Republicans.
In addition, while around 7 out of 10 independents and around 9 out of 10 Democrats believe that Musk has too much influence, only about 4 out of 10 Republicans feel that.
Mark Collins, 67, Michigan warehouse director who has leaned Republican in recent years, said Musk “manages a good tight ship” in his businesses, “and the government certainly needs to tighten”.
“He cleanses all garbage,” he said. “I love what he does.”
Republicans are much less likely than democrats to worry about being affected by the recent sections of federal government agencies, services or subsidies. Only 11% said they were “extremely” or “very” concerned about the fact that they or someone they know will be affected, while about two -thirds of the Democrats and 44% of the self -employed have these fears.
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The AP-Noc survey with 1,260 adults was conducted from April 17 to 21, using a sample drawn from the amerispeak panel based on the probability of NORC, which is designed to be representative of the American population. The sampling margin for adults as a whole is more or less 3.9 percentage points.
