Tech billionaire Elon Musk is a potential liability for President Donald Trump's new administration as polling reveals voters are not on board with his takeover of federal systems — and Democrats are seizing on this to unite behind an anti-Musk message, Politico reported on Thursday.
Musk and his "Department of Government Efficiency" task force is already drawing protests as they have seized control of crucial government systems, including the IT system used for handling most of the Treasury Department's payments — as well as a controversial "deferred resignation" offer to huge swathes of the civil service that was put on hold by a federal judge Thursday — just hours before its deadline.
"Armed with new polling showing Musk’s popularity in the toilet, key Democratic leaders are going after the top adviser to President Donald Trump who is dismantling the federal government," according to the report. Specifically, key Democratic figures in Congress are "attempting to subpoena him and introducing legislation to block him from receiving federal contracts while he holds a 'special' role leading Trump’s cost-cutting crusade."
Democrats are emphasizing that they are not inherently opposed to the idea of auditing the government for waste and fraud — but that's not what they see happening here.
The opposition is coming from all wings of the party, noted the report, with newly minted House Oversight ranking member Gerry Connolly (D-VA) saying, “This guy who says he’s your champion has hired a billionaire from South Africa who doesn’t give a damn about you or your family and is proving it every hour of the day,” and conservative Rep. Jared Golden (D-ME) calling Musk an "unelected, weirdo billionaire" who is "swinging left and right and smashing things."
Even Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), who represents Silicon Valley and has been close with Musk in the past, is putting his foot down, posting to social media that Musk's “attacks on our institutions are unconstitutional.”
Several polls in recent days, both public and internal, have found voters disapprove of Musk; Hart Research found 54 percent of voters dislike him, and YouGov found even 60 percent of Republican voters want him to have "little" influence or none at all in the administration.
Meanwhile, Democrats' internal polls found 70 percent of voters opposed “the creation of a government of the rich for the rich by appointing up to nine different billionaires to the administration,” which suggests it's a potent issue for Democrats to exploit.