{"id":11254,"date":"2025-06-13T12:39:36","date_gmt":"2025-06-13T12:39:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/?p=11254"},"modified":"2025-06-13T12:39:38","modified_gmt":"2025-06-13T12:39:38","slug":"republican-enthusiasm-for-musk-cools-after-his-feud-with-trump-a-new-poll-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/?p=11254","title":{"rendered":"Republican enthusiasm for Musk cools after his feud with Trump, a new poll finds"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

WASHINGTON — <\/span>Tech billionaire Elon Musk has lost some of his luster with Republicans since his messy public falling-out<\/a> with President Donald Trump last week, a new survey finds. <\/p>\n

Fewer Republicans view Trump’s onetime government efficiency bulldog \u201cvery favorably\u201d compared with April<\/a>, according to the poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Though most Republicans continue to hold a positive view of Musk, their diminished fervor suggests his vocal opposition<\/a> to Trump’s signature spending and tax cut legislation \u2014 and Musk’s subsequent online political and personal taunts<\/a> \u2014 may have cost him some enthusiasm within the party. <\/p>\n

\u201cSome things have happened lately that have changed how I feel about him a little,\u201d said Alabama Republican Katye Long, whose feelings for Musk have cooled to \u201csomewhat favorable.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cI liked what he was doing when he was helping. But now I feel like he\u2019s kind of hurting,\u201d said the 34-year-old automotive component factory employee and mother of three from Woodstock, Alabama. \u201cI also don\u2019t feel like he matters that much. He\u2019s not actually part of the government. He\u2019s just a rich guy who pushes his opinions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Musk’s overall popularity hasn’t shifted, the poll found, and most of the shift among Democrats and Republicans was between \u201cvery\u201d and \u201csomewhat\u201d strong opinions. Americans are less likely to view him favorably than his electric vehicle company, Tesla. That said, about half of Americans have a negative opinion of Tesla, highlighting another challenge for Musk when the company has dropped in value<\/a> and been the target of protests<\/a> in the U.S. and Europe. About one-third have a favorable view of Tesla, while about 2 in 10 don’t know enough to say.<\/p>\n

Even a subtle shift in the intensity of Republicans\u2019 feelings about Musk could be important as the electric car and aerospace mogul weighs a second political act after spending about $200 million<\/a> in service of Trump\u2019s 2024 election effort. <\/p>\n

After decrying the GOP\u2019s massive tax and budget policy bill as \u201ca disgusting abomination,\u201d Musk wrote on X, his social media platform, \u201cIn November next year, we fire all politicians who betrayed the American people.\u201d <\/p>\n

The poll suggests the messy feud with Trump may have rubbed some Republicans the wrong way, as the share of Republicans viewing Musk as \u201cvery favorable\u201d has dropped from 38% in April to 26% now. At the same time, antipathy toward Musk among Democrats has waned a little. About two-thirds, 65%, of Democrats have a very negative view of Musk, down slightly from about three-quarters, 74%, in April. <\/p>\n

Musk’s bitter back-and-forth with Trump has business implications, too. Tesla was already struggling with a backlash against Musk’s association with Trump. Sales across Europe plunged by half<\/a> in May, even as growth in the electric car market accelerated. Then the company’s shares plunged in value<\/a> when Musk began sparring publicly with the president.<\/p>\n

Victoria Brown, of Kansas City, Kansas, rated Tesla \u201csomewhat unfavorable\u201d because she objects to how Trump is conducting his administration and links the company\u2019s owner with the president\u2019s agenda.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t favor Trump. So, pretty much the fact that they have been working together means I don\u2019t care too much for Tesla,\u201d said Brown, 63, a political independent and an insurance agent.<\/p>\n

While the intensity of people’s feelings about Musk may have changed, their overall opinions have not. About one-third of U.S. adults have a favorable opinion of Musk, compared with about 6 in 10 who hold an unfavorable view, while about 1 in 10 don’t know enough to say. That’s unchanged from the April poll.<\/p>\n

The new poll was conducted June 5-9, after Musk left his government role<\/a> and began attacking Trump’s marquee legislative priority. <\/p>\n

Musk’s public clash with Trump began four days after Trump honored Musk effusively<\/a> during an Oval Office event discharging him from duties as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency.<\/p>\n

After first tearing down the budget bill, Musk two days later complained he had never seen the language, and he aimed his fire at Trump, suggesting the president didn’t sufficiently appreciate the role Musk assumed as the chief benefactor to Trump’s reelection effort. <\/p>\n

\u201cWithout me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate,\u201d Musk wrote. \u201cSuch ingratitude.\u201d <\/p>\n

Musk went on to claim without evidence that the federal government was concealing information about Trump’s association with infamous pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Musk deleted the post<\/a>, and early Wednesday he stepped back from his attacks on Trump, writing on X<\/a> that he regretted some of his posts and they \u201cwent too far.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tesla endured a difficult first quarter in 2025<\/a>, with its sales falling<\/a> while the world\u2019s leading electric car manufacturer faced protests in showrooms<\/a>. The new poll also shows that Tesla is viewed far more negatively than some of its peers \u2014 notably, Ford, Toyota and General Motors. <\/p>\n

Only about one-third of U.S. adults have a \u201cvery\u201d or \u201csomewhat\u201d favorable view of Tesla. About half of U.S. adults have an unfavorable opinion of Tesla, including 30% of Republicans. Democrats, at 66%, are more than twice as likely as Republicans to have a negative view of Tesla. But even among Republicans, Tesla is viewed less favorably than the other brands. <\/p>\n

Marisa Mills is no Musk fan. The 41-year-old teacher from Oakland, California, objects to his association with Trump and what the Democrat sees as their misguided notion that government is always well served by operating like a business. <\/p>\n

And yet she was once proud to have Tesla building cars in her own county. She soured on the company in 2020, when Musk sued Alameda County over its workplace restrictions during the coronavirus pandemic, before he moved the company to Texas in 2021. <\/p>\n

\u201cMy government is supposed to serve the people, not his company. We were all glad to see him go,\u201d Mills said. \u201cI do regret that we now have feelings of regret for the Tesla car product. We were once so proud.\u201d <\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Beaumont reported from Des Moines, Iowa.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

The AP-NORC poll of 1,158 adults was conducted June 5-9, using a sample drawn from NORC\u2019s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for adults overall is plus or minus 4 percentage points.<\/p>\n

___ The Associated Press\u2019 climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Find the AP\u2019s standards<\/a> for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON — Tech billionaire Elon Musk has lost some of his luster with Republicans since his messy public falling-out with President Donald Trump last week, a new survey finds. Fewer Republicans view Trump’s onetime government efficiency bulldog \u201cvery favorably\u201d compared with April, according to the poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11255,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11254"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11254\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11256,"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11254\/revisions\/11256"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}