“Drain the swamp” has lengthy been one in all President Donald Trump’s signature slogans. However now that billionaire Elon Musk is orchestrating mass layoffs of federal staff, it’s not clear that rhetoric interprets into in style coverage.
At city halls from Missouri to Georgia to Oklahoma, constituents of Republican lawmakers have proven as much as protest Musk and his Division of Authorities Effectivity’s aggressive efforts to slash authorities spending. Greater than 20,000 staff have been laid off thus far, and nearly 1 million individuals who reside in states that Trump gained in 2024 might finally be affected.
That raises the query: Will DOGE’s cuts damage the Republican celebration in the long term?
At the least just a few GOP lawmakers appear to be involved they may. Some, together with Rep. Wealthy McCormick (R-GA) and Rep. Scott Fitzgerald (R-WI), have even been publicly urging Musk to take a kinder strategy to reductions in power or demanding extra transparency.
“The query is, will we give folks time to regulate to their lives? And I believe that’s my greatest concern, is that we’re being compassionate,” McCormick instructed NBC Information amid considerations about layoffs on the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention, which is headquartered in Atlanta.
Nevertheless, Republicans like McCormick stay within the minority, and Trump retains giving Musk the thumbs up. Musk, too, appears undeterred, just lately telling federal staff who ignored an preliminary e-mail asking for a abstract of their latest actions that he’d give them a remaining likelihood to answer. In the event that they didn’t reply, he mentioned, they threat termination.
A variety of Democratic strategists, however, are hoping any early frustration with DOGE grows — and that their celebration can exploit anger over authorities cuts on the polls throughout subsequent 12 months’s midterms.
Longtime Democratic strategist James Carville instructed NewsNation earlier this week that he believes Musk’s techniques at DOGE could also be “the best generator of Democratic turnout, ever, greater than Barack Obama.” And in a New York Instances op-ed on Tuesday, Carville steered that an early indicator could possibly be November’s governor’s race in Virginia, the place about 144,000 civilian federal staff reside.
Based mostly on polling, Democrats’ evaluation that DOGE is deeply unpopular with their voters appears appropriate — however its aggressive cuts will not be inspiring as a lot opposition amongst Republicans because the latest city halls would recommend. And which means it might be too early for Democrats to depend on DOGE to usher in huge victories for them.
Polls present cracks in DOGE’s technique
A number of latest nationwide polls have proven widespread disapproval of Musk because the (apparently unofficial) head of DOGE, however there seems to be a stark divide between Democrats and Republicans.
A Washington Submit-Ipsos ballot from February 13 to 18 discovered that 49 p.c of People disapproved of Musk’s job efficiency, together with 85 p.c of registered Democrats, however solely 15 p.c of registered Republicans. Over half of People total, 90 p.c of Democrats and simply 18 p.c of Republicans, mentioned they disapproved of Musk’s efforts to close down authorities packages that he deemed pointless.
Opposition to Musk’s workforce getting access to delicate authorities databases storing the private data of hundreds of thousands of People appeared barely extra bipartisan: 92 p.c of Democrats and 32 p.c of Republicans mentioned they have been “involved” about it.
One other mid-February ballot from Quinnipiac College discovered that 55 p.c of People assume Musk has an excessive amount of decision-making energy within the federal authorities, together with 96 p.c of Democrats and 16 p.c of Republicans.
These outcomes are in step with different February polls from Pew Analysis Middle and Emerson School, which discovered that People disapproved of Musk greater than they accepted of him. Each polls additionally mirrored a stark partisan cut up.
Democrats are apparently nearly unified of their opposition to Musk, and the celebration may nicely be capable to use that disapproval to stage a comeback within the midterms. However their path again to energy isn’t huge open. At the least for now, it’s clear that Republicans like what Musk is doing, and the GOP doesn’t appear to be self-inflicting any wounds. The query is whether or not that may change, particularly if authorities layoffs begin affecting the livelihoods of Republican voters.
