Two-thirds of Americans now say they wouldn’t drive a Tesla — and most of them cite Elon Musk as the reason why, according to a new poll
The Yahoo News/YouGov survey shows that the tech billionaire’s popularity has plummeted since he launched the Department of Government Efficiency.
For months, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has waged war on the federal bureaucracy as head of President Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) — canceling contracts, terminating leases, firing civil servants, blocking payments and dismantling America’s top foreign aid agency.
But according to a new Yahoo News/YouGov poll, Musk’s cost-cutting activities have done little to endear him — or his electric cars — to the public.
A full two-thirds of Americans (67%) now say they would not consider buying or leasing a Tesla — and most of those Americans (56%) cite Musk himself as either “the whole reason” (30%) or “part of the reason” (26%) why.
The survey of 1,677 U.S. adults, which was conducted from March 20 to March 24, found that Musk’s popularity has plummeted since last November. Back then, the previously nonpartisan tech billionaire was making waves for steering his social media platform X rightward and spending a quarter of a billion dollars to help Trump win the 2024 election.
On Nov. 12, Trump announced that Musk would lead a new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) tasked with “provid[ing] advice and guidance from outside of Government.” (Because Trump eventually created DOGE via executive order, it is not an official Cabinet department but rather a “temporary organization” set to “terminate” on July 4, 2026.)
“This will send shockwaves through the system, and anyone involved in Government waste, which is a lot of people!” Musk said at the time, according to Trump’s announcement.
A Yahoo News/YouGov poll conducted days later (from Nov. 14 to 18) showed that Americans viewed Musk more favorably (49%) than unfavorably (39%) heading into Trump’s second term.
But that has changed over the last few months. According to the new Yahoo News/YouGov survey, just 39% of Americans now have a favorable opinion of Musk; a full 55% have an unfavorable opinion.
Likewise, a majority of Americans (54%) now say Musk has “too much influence” with Trump (up from 39% in November), while only 30% say Musk's influence is “about right” (down from 36%). The number who say Musk doesn’t have enough influence with Trump (2%) has fallen by half (from 4%).
The poll suggests that Musk’s stewardship of DOGE is responsible for this stark reversal:
Just 40% of Americans rate DOGE favorably; 44% view the organization unfavorably.
While 49% of Americans favor “the idea of having a government agency tasked with cutting federal spending,” only 37% approve of the way DOGE, led by Musk, is actually cutting spending; 48% disapprove.
44% of Americans say that DOGE is “making things worse by cutting essential services”; 38% say that “DOGE is making things better by cutting wasteful spending.”
Finally, a majority of Americans (52%) believe that Musk is “mostly trying to help himself”; just 36% think Musk is “mostly trying to help the country.”
Views of Musk and DOGE — like most things in American politics — tend to polarize along partisan lines. But there are signs in the new Yahoo News/YouGov survey that Musk has gone too far even for some Trump supporters. While only 12% of 2024 Trump voters disapprove of the way DOGE is cutting federal spending, for instance, roughly twice as many now rate Musk himself unfavorably (20%) and say he has too much influence with the president (23%).
In November, those numbers were 8% and 11%, respectively.
Meanwhile, Tesla — the target of #TeslaTakedown protests at dealerships across the country — is now more popular with Republicans (27% of whom say they would consider buying or leasing one) than independents (19%) or Democrats (8%).
Even so, just one in five Americans (a combined 20%) either currently have a Tesla (2%) or say they would consider getting one in the future (18%). Of those, a mere 10% say Musk is either the whole reason or part of the reason why.
Overall, 49% of Americans now view Tesla unfavorably; 37% view the company favorably.
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The Yahoo News survey was conducted by YouGov using a nationally representative sample of 1,677 U.S. adults interviewed online from March 20 to 24, 2025. The sample was weighted according to gender, age, race, education, 2024 election turnout and presidential vote, party identification and current voter registration status. Demographic weighting targets come from the 2019 American Community Survey. Party identification is weighted to the estimated distribution at the time of the election (31% Democratic, 32% Republican). Respondents were selected from YouGov’s opt-in panel to be representative of all U.S. adults. The margin of error is approximately 2.6%.