June 13, 2025
Amidst the public feud between President Trump and the former head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Elon Musk, the public’s opinion of both men has not changed much since an AP-NORC poll conducted in April of this year.
The nationwide survey was conducted June 5-9, while Trump’s clash with Musk was playing out in their social media platforms.
Fifty-seven percent of the public hold an unfavorable impression of Musk, consistent with the poll in April. Republicans continue to have a more positive impression of Musk, while most Democrats and many independents have unfavorable views of him.
Similarly, Trump’s favorability has remained steady, with a large majority of Republicans with a favorable view of him and most Democrats and many independents with an unfavorable impression.
The negative view of Musk is reflected in views of Tesla, his electric vehicle company. Tesla is viewed much more negatively compared with some of its competitors with only about a third having a favorable impression of the company. In comparison, about 6 in 10 have favorable opinions of Ford and General Motors, and 72% have a favorable impression of Toyota.
Similar to Musk’s own favorability, Republicans are more likely to have a favorable impression of Tesla than Democrats or independents. Republicans are also more likely than Democrats or independents to have favorable views of Ford and General Motors, though there is a much smaller partisan gap in views of those two companies. There are no partisan differences in the public’s positive opinion of Toyota.
The nationwide poll was conducted June 5-9, 2025 using the AmeriSpeak® Panel, the probability-based panel of NORC at the University of Chicago. Online and telephone interviews using landlines and cell phones were conducted with 1,158 adults. The overall margin of sampling error is +/- 4.0 percentage points.
- Suggested Citation: AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. “Many hold unfavorable impressions of Musk and Tesla” (June 2025). https://apnorc.org/projects/many-hold-unfavorable-impressions-of-musk-and-tesla/
