About half of Americans do not want US entrepreneur Elon Musk to have any influence in the administration of US President Donald Trump, according to a joint poll by the Economist and YouGov.
Earlier, the Washington Post called Musk a “shadow president” of the United States after he actively interfered in the process of discussing a bill to fund the federal government, which led to the threat of a shutdown. NBC previously reported that Musk’s constant presence near Trump and his behavior are beginning to irritate the circle of those close to Trump. According to them, Musk behaves like a co-president.
According to the poll, 46% of the Americans surveyed said that they would prefer Musk to have no influence in the US administration. Also, according to the poll, 51% of respondents said Musk has a lot of influence in the Trump administration, while only 4% believe he has none.
The poll was conducted from February 2 to 4 among more than 1.6 thousand adult Americans. The survey has a statistical margin of error of about three percentage points.
Trump previously announced that Musk and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy would lead a new Office of Government Efficiency to “cut wasteful spending and restructure federal agencies.” Ramaswamy later announced his resignation from the DOGE leadership – according to ABC News, he may soon announce plans to run for governor of Ohio.
On Tuesday, Democratic state representative and Texas House member Greg Kasar called for Musk to be fired from his position in the Trump administration.