On "Forbes Newsroom," Matt Taglia, Senior Director of Emerson College Polling, discussed a new Emerson poll showing how Americans feel about Elon Musk.
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00:00Are there any other domestic issues that are either pain points or bright spots for President
00:05Trump?
00:06Yeah, one of the biggest changes that we saw was with Russia and Ukraine.
00:13When we asked about the handling of Russia and Ukraine, 27 percent approve of Trump's
00:21handling versus 52 percent who disapprove.
00:25That's a drop in approval since the March poll, really, really a staggering number there.
00:32Full 30 percent of Republicans disapprove of how President Trump is handling the war between
00:37Russia and Ukraine.
00:39So that, I think, is certainly informing some of the overall approval, some of these other
00:46numbers that we see here.
00:48On the more positive side, and it pains me to say this, but higher education, the way
00:53the Trump administration has been handling higher education, and, you know, not to take
00:59a position here, but working in higher ed, you know, it's, you know, we've seen that the
01:04administration has taken some actions there.
01:07But overall, voters approve of that, 45 percent approve, 36 percent disapprove.
01:12And interestingly, we actually see higher approval among younger voters than among older voters.
01:19So there are some bright spots here for Trump and the administration.
01:24But I think the overall picture is that a lot of these policies are really not popular,
01:31despite President Trump maintaining a reasonably high approval rating overall.
01:37I think it would be really impossible to talk about President Trump's first few months in
01:42his second term without talking about Elon Musk's influence.
01:46As we know, Elon Musk is the world's richest man.
01:49He's still a special government employee.
01:51He's also the face of Doge.
01:53Do people and voters approve of him and his approach of essentially taking a chainsaw to
01:58the federal government?
01:59Overall, no.
02:01And we have seen this as a trend really since Musk first took the position as head of Doge.
02:08I don't, I wouldn't necessarily say that voters disagree with the mission of Doge.
02:13You know, we tend to see that folks want to see waste and fraud cut out of government, of
02:21course.
02:23But they don't necessarily agree with how it's going with Doge.
02:26They don't necessarily approve of Musk overall.
02:30So in this poll, 47% disapprove, 41% approve.
02:36That is very consistent with what we've seen since Musk started in the role, since the start
02:41of the administration.
02:43And as I think he looks to take a step back, I would expect that his public image will improve
02:53just by virtue of not helming the agency anymore.
02:58Matt, as we know, hindsight really is always 20-20.
03:01But does anyone have any buyer's remorse?
03:03Does any voter, knowing what they know now, would change their vote?
03:07If they were a Harris voter, vote Trump.
03:09If they were a Trump voter, vote Harris.
03:11Yeah.
03:12And this is interesting.
03:13So we ask in all of our national polls, you know, who you supported in the 2024 election.
03:20So based on that, we asked a question, you know, knowing what you know now, would you change
03:26your vote?
03:27Would you vote for Harris if you're a Trump voter or Trump if you were a Harris voter?
03:33And we found that by and large, neither would change their votes.
03:36So 93% of Harris supporters would still support Harris, and 94% of Trump voters would still
03:43support Trump.
03:44I think, you know, we do see a little bit of bleed there in both, and those sort of go
03:48to the, you know, I'd vote for another candidate, whether that's third party or some hypothetical
03:53candidate, or that they wouldn't vote at all.
03:57But overall, we are not seeing this buyer's remorse, as I think has been reported elsewhere.
04:04That is not reflected in this poll.
04:06Matt, there are certainly a lot of good numbers in here to look out for.
04:10I'm looking out for the next over 1000 days to see how people view President Trump all
04:16throughout that.
04:17And I know that Emerson College polling will have numbers about President Trump's approval
04:21and everything in between.
04:23Thank you so much for joining me.
04:24You are welcome back anytime.
04:26Thanks so much.
04:29Hope to be back soon.
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