This Trump ally is ‘political kryptonite’ for president and for selling cars, poll finds
Elon Musk’s approval rating has experienced a dramatic fall in seven short years.
In 2017, the Tesla CEO enjoyed widespread popularity throughout the political spectrum.
Now, approval polls show he’s “political kryptonite,” according to CNN’s chief data analyst Harry Enten.
In 2017, when Ipsos began polling the Tesla CEO’s popularity, Musk enjoyed a net favorability rating of 24 percentage points, Enten said.
Today, that number is underwater by 19 percentage points.
The decline has been even sharper among Democrats.
Musk had a +35 net favorability rating among Democrats in 2019.
Now, it’s -91.
“You can’t really go down lower than that,” Enten said. “I guess you could go down -100 points. But he became political kryptonite. He was greatly disliked by the American public and greatly, greatly disliked by Democrats …”
Musk’s unpopularity has also bled into Tesla’s standing with the public.
According to CNBC polling from April, Enten said, the electric car manufacturer’s net favorability rating stood at -20 percentage points.
“So this idea that Tesla could somehow separate itself off from Elon Musk” is disproven, Enten said.
“Awfully difficult to sell cars when you have a -20-point net favorability rating driven by Elon Musk’s net favorability rating … and it’s not a surprise that Tesla sales have fallen in the first quarter … It turns out that Elon Musk’s political kryptonite is also kryptonite for selling cars.”
Musk, the richest person in the world, said Tuesday that he would be spending less on political campaigns. The announcement came as Musk is stepping back from his role in the Trump administration, saying he will spend more time focused on his businesses, and just seven weeks after the candidate he backed in Wisconsin’s Supreme Court race lost by 10 percentage points.
The campaigning effort was dubbed a flop by the Associated Press.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump appears to have distanced himself from Musk based on the president’s social media postings.
From Jan. 20 to April 4, about 40 of Trump’s posts on his Truth Social account were about Musk, Enten reported.
Since April 5, Trump’s account has mentioned Musk zero times.
“Donald Trump knows brands very well,” Enten said, “and he knows Elon Musk’s political brand time has run out …”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.