Figure 1. Overall Trust in Musk, DOGE, and Trump 

Republicans trust Musk and DOGE more than Democrats do, but they trust Trump a whole lot more. 

A little over half of Republicans (53%) trusted Musk and DOGE, compared to 3% and 5% of Democrats, respectively. Republicans’ trust in Present Trump is much higher—around 70%. Given this discrepancy, Republican leaders will want to keep an eye on constituents’ perceptions of how the work of Musk and DOGE is being perceived by their constituents.   

• 53% of Republicans report having “a lot” or “a great deal” of trust in Elon Musk.
• 53% of Republicans report having “a lot” or “a great deal” of trust in Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
• 70% of Republicans report having “a lot” or “a great deal” of trust in President Donald Trump.
• 11% of Republicans report having no trust in Musk and 10% report having no trust in DOGE.

Half of Independents report having no trust in Musk at all.

• Among Independent voters, only 11% report “a lot” or “a great deal” of Trust in Musk, and 13% report those levels of trust in DOGE.
• Most Independents report having no trust in Musk or DOGE at all: 52% of Independents report having no trust in Musk, and 45% report having no trust in DOGE.

What does it mean that trust in Musk and DOGE are relatively low – even among Republicans?

Two months into Trump’s second term, protests are increasing outside of Tesla dealerships nationwide and viral videos of townhall meetings show Congressional Republicans facing backlash from constituents angry about Musk and DOGE. With many of DOGE’s layoffs of federal workers and cuts to federal agencies having been stopped by – or tied up in – the courts, the future of this relatively unpopular government organization is unclear.

“As constituents in Republican districts learn about and voice concerns about DOGE’s cuts to Veteran’s Affairs, The National Institutes of Health, National Parks, and the Federal Aviation Administration, it will be interesting to see how public trust in Musk and DOGE may be affected,” said Dr. Dannagal Young, Director of the Center for Political Communication and one of the authors of the survey. “Understanding public sentiment about these unique government entities is essential to help ensure that elected officials are responsive to voter concerns.

Especially since Musk described Social Security as ‘the greatest Ponzi scheme of all time’ and shared a meme describing beneficiaries of federal programs like Medicare “the parasite class,” keeping an eye on DOGE and tracking public trust in their activities is crucial – not only to gauge the public’s response to the cutting of federally funded programs, but also to get a sense of how the political scene is evolving as lawmakers’ chances of reelection remain in flux.”

About the Study 

The survey was conducted by YouGov between February 27 and March 5, 2025. A representative sample of 1,600 adult Americans were surveyed online. The results have a margin of error of +/-2.5%. Statistical results are weighted by demographic factors (gender, age, race, and education) to best reflect the electorate as a whole. Graphics for press release created by Swivel Studios. For further details about the sample and methodology, please contact Dannagal Young, Ph.D. (dgyoung@udel.edu).   
 

About the University of Delaware's Center for Political Communication 

The University of Delaware’s Center for Political Communication, established in 2010, is a nonpartisan, interdisciplinary center connecting academics, students, and the community to relevant issues in political communication. 
 

Methodology 

The Center for Political Communication at the University of Delaware contracted with YouGov, who interviewed 1635 respondents who were then matched down to a sample of 1600 to produce the final dataset. The respondents were matched to a sampling frame on gender, age, race, and education. The sampling frame is a politically representative "modeled frame" of US adults, based upon the American Community Survey (ACS) public use microdata file, public voter file records, the 2020 Current Population Survey (CPS) Voting and Registration  supplements, the 2020 National Election Pool (NEP) exit poll, and the 2020 CES surveys, including demographics and 2020 presidential vote. 

The matched cases were weighted to the sampling frame using propensity scores. The matched cases and the frame were combined and a logistic regression was estimated for inclusion in the frame. The propensity score function included age, gender, race/ethnicity, years of education, and region. The propensity scores were grouped into deciles of the estimated propensity score in the frame and post-stratified according to these deciles. 

The weights were then post-stratified on 2020 and 2024 presidential vote choice as well as a four-way stratification of gender, age (4-categories), race (4-categories), and education (4-categories), to produce the final weight. 
 

Question Wording and Topline Distributions 

Trust in Musk, DOGE, and Trump: 

How much trust do you have in… 

• Elon Musk
• DOGE (The Department of Government Efficiency
• Donald Trump

1. A great deal
2. A lot
3. A moderate amount
4. A little
5. None

Party identification: Generally speaking, do you think of yourself as a…?

1. Democrat *If Democrat selected, ask the follow-up: Would you call yourself a strong Democrat or a not very strong Democrat? 
   1. Strong Democrat 
   2. Not very strong Democrat
2. Republican * If Republican selected, ask the follow-up: Would you call yourself a strong Republican or a not very strong Republican?
   1. Strong Republican
   2. Not very strong Republican
3. Independent
4. Other
5. Not sure

*If Independent, Other, or Not sure selected, ask the follow-up: Do you think of yourself as a closer to the Democratic or the Republican Party?

1. The Democratic Party
2. The Republican party
3. Neither
4. Not sure

Recoded Party Identification with Independents who “lean” Democrat or Republican, recoded into Democrat or Republican