What Americans think of Trump and Musk’s plans for government

WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans view the federal government as a session of corruption, inefficiency and red tape — but they are less sure whether Elon Musk is the right person to fix it.

A new survey from The Associated Press-Norc Center for Public Affairs Research shows that only about 3 in 10 American adults strongly or somewhat approve of President Trump’s creation of an advisory body on government effectiveness, which Musk leads. About 4 in 10 disapprove, while the rest were neutral or didn’t know enough to say so. (The survey was conducted before Vivek Ramaswamy announced He would no longer be involved in the group.)

The purpose of the advisory body, The Department of Government Effectivenessor Doge, must expose fraudulent and wasteful spending in the federal bureaucracy, and its leaders have floated a range of possible ways to cut costs, including eliminating entire agencies. But while most agree the federal government faces major problems, many Americans also have an unfavorable view of Musk and are wary of the Republican president relying on billionaires for advice on government policy.

As the plans take more concrete form, the poll shows Americans are ambivalent about some of the changes Trump and his team have mentioned in recent months — including eliminating large numbers of federal jobs and moving agencies federal institutions outside of Washington. Substantive stocks have no opinion, indicating that there is plenty of room for opinion to move in either direction.

A return-to-office policy for federal workers — which was one of Trump’s first executive actions on Inauguration Day — is quite popular.

Americans see a broken federal government — but aren’t as concerned about the ‘deep state’

As Trump sweeps through his second term with promises of cutting regulations and reducing the role of government bureaucrats, most Americans believe the federal government is in serious trouble. About two-thirds of American adults say corruption and inefficiency are “major problems” in the federal government, and about 6 in 10 say the same about red tape, such as government regulations and bureaucracy.

Republicans are more likely than Democrats to think these are major problems — but the majority of Democrats still agree that corruption and inefficiency are significant challenges to government.

But despite Trump’s claims that career federal workers resisted his policies in his first term, concern among civil servants who are unwilling to implement the president’s agenda is not as high. Only about a third of Americans say it’s a big problem in government.

Many do not like musks and distrust

Musk was An important part of Trump’s inauguration ceremonies – Given a seat inside the Capitol Rotunda for the event, then speaking at a rally shortly after Trump was sworn in.

About a third of Americans have a favorable view of Musk — a billionaire and the world’s richest person — who is down slightly as of December. Americans’ views of Musk and Trump have a fair amount of overlap: About 8 in 10 Americans share the same view of both men, whether positive or negative. About half of Americans have an unfavorable view of Musk and Trump.

Some Americans may also be wary of Musk’s prominence. American adults largely think it’s a bad thing if the president relies on billionaires for advice on government policy, the poll found. About 6 in 10 American adults say it would be a “very” or “somewhat” bad thing, while only 1 in 10 call it a very or somewhat good thing, and about 3 in 10 are neutral.

Returning to the office for federal workers more popular than cutting federal jobs

On Monday, one of Trump’s first executive orders was a broad directive for federal employees to return to the office. It was one of several policies aimed at increasing government efficiency that Trump and Musk floated before his inauguration, including a broader push to eliminate federal jobs.

A significant share of Americans have no opinion on either proposition, meaning there is plenty of room for views to shift as Trump begins to act. But the shots are less popular than a broad return-to-work mandate. About 4 in 10 Americans oppose eliminating large numbers of federal jobs, according to the poll, while about 3 in 10 favor it. But about 4 in 10 favor requiring federal workers to return to the office five days a week, and only about 2 in 10 oppose.

Trump has said moving agencies outside Washington will help him break up the “deep state,” a supposed network of mostly unelected officials influencing government policy, and he has begun moving some federal jobs from the region to the end of his first term. But he may need to try this on a larger scale before Americans decide how they feel about it. Nearly half of American adults in the poll were neutral in moving federal agencies out of Washington, while about a quarter were in favor and a similar share were opposed.

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The AP-NORC poll of 1,147 adults was conducted Jan. 9-13, using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based Amerispeak panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for adults as a whole is plus or minus 3.9 percentage points.