A large majority of Americans (a combined 61%) say President Donald Trump's Department of Government Efficiency led by Elon Musk is basically a good thing, but opinions vary on the execution and the swift speed in which the plans for cuts are coming, according NBC News poll released Sunday.
Just 4% of those poll say there is no need to cut the size of government or wasteful spending.
Exactly one-third of registered voters (33%) say DOGE investigations into government waste, fraud, and abuse should continue and more should be done, while another 28% say DOGE is much needed but might need to slow down, according to the poll data.
That trumps the 33% who said DOGE's massive cuts to waste, fraud, and abuse is "reckless and should end now."
A total of 45% of registered voters negatively view Musk – the electric vehicle magnate – formerly a darling of Green New Deal progressives and now a pariah.
Still, when taken in the full view of all registered voters, DOGE remains a "good idea" to a plurality of registered voters, even if most view Musk unfavorably:
- DOGE is a "good idea" 46% say.
- DOGE is a "bad idea" 40% say.
- 13% have no opinion.
DOGE's favorability, despite mostly being a "good idea," is a held in a negative view by 47%, compared to 41% who have positive views of it. With registered voters, 51% have negative views of him and just 39% view him positively now, according to the poll.
"We start seeing a lot of people in that squishy middle," Hart Research Associates Democrat pollster Aileen Cardona-Arroyo told NBC News.
"It tells us that a lot of people are willing to give DOGE the benefit of the doubt," she said. She added, "For a majority of voters, either they want things to slow down and reevaluate, or think that maybe things are, a little bit, going in the wrong direction."
The NBC News poll surveyed 1,000 registered voters March 7-11, and the margin of error is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.