Elon Musk has seemingly shoved vice president J.D. Vance aside, according to CNN's Sara Sidner, and she said the tech mogul is starting to overshadow president Donald Trump.
The billionaire CEO has installed his youthful lackeys in agencies across the U.S. government and has been a driving force in offering buyouts to key federal employees, and new polling shows Americans are not happy with the outsize role Musk has claimed for himself after spending more than $277 million to get Trump re-elected.
"President Trump, no surprise here, continues to defend billionaire Elon Musk as he takes a sledgehammer to federal government agencies," Sidner said. "Earlier this week, one White House official said Musk is serving as a, quote, 'special government employee.' So how do Americans feel about Musk and his unelected role?"
ALSO READ:'Driven to self-loathing': Inside the extremist website believed to 'groom' teen attackers
CNN's Harry Enten revealed that surveys showed 53 percent of registered voters opposed Musk's role in the Trump administration, compared to 39 percent who supported his position.
"Simply put, the American people did not sign up for this," Enten said. "They voted in Donald Trump, they did not vote in Elon Musk, a key role for Musk in Trump's administration. You see this 39 percent support, 53 percent – the clear majority opposed. They don't want this, the American people don't want this – no, no, no."
Musk's favorability has plummeted as his political influence has grown, dropping from plus-29 in 2016, when he was best known as the SpaceX and Tesla CEO, to negative-3 as he campaigned with Trump last fall, and now to negative-11, two weeks into this administration – although the social network he owns remains filled with fans.
"If you go on Twitter, [or] X, which he now owns, you would think he is the king of kings," Sidner said.
"He may be the king of X or Twitter," Enten added, "but he ain't the king of the United States of America, and if he were the king, he'd be a very unpopular king ... It should be noted that Donald Trump's own net favorable rating is closer to about a net zero, so Elon Musk at this particular point is far more unpopular than Donald Trump is, who is at the apex of his popularity. In fact, what we see with Elon Musk is he is at the trough of his popularity."
Musk played a prominent role in the final months of Trump's re-election campaign, and his profile has only grown while serving as an unelected adviser tasked with drastically cutting government spending.
"Look, I think a lot of people saw them as almost a package deal," Sidner said. "You saw him more than J.D. Vance. We don't even say J.D. Vance's name – he is the vice president. It's 'Musk, Musk, Musk' all day, every day because of the moves he's making. So does it seem like he's sort of becoming the face of this administration?"
"Yeah, I think in some ways he is he is becoming the face of this administration," Enten agreed. "Look at Google searches for Elon Musk – they're at their all-time high, at their all-time high since Google started tracking this back in 2004. Get this: It's up 700 percent from this time last year. It's like a rocket ship taking [off], and you mentioned J.D. Vance. Get this: Searches for Elon Musk are seven times as high as the searches for J.D. Vance, so the idea that Elon Musk can go do this and kind of quietly go into the corner, he's becoming a face of this administration, an unpopular face at that."
Watch below or click the link.