A majority of Mainers feel Elon Musk’s role as President Donald Trump’s agency-slashing czar is inappropriate, according to a University of New Hampshire poll released Wednesday.
Musk, the world’s richest man, has been at the center of the Republican president’s first month in office as the head of Trump’s “Department of Government Efficiency” — or DOGE. It has roamed through government agencies and dug into budgets while the administration carries out mass firings and lawsuits pile up claiming Trump and DOGE are violating the law.
The UNH survey showed that Maine is following a national pattern of deep polarization over Trump’s fast-paced early tenure. Roughly 54 percent of registered voters called Musk’s role inappropriate. Those results were starkly divided between Democrats and Republicans.
About 87 percent of self-identified Republicans called Musk’s work appropriate, while essentially no Democrats did and only about a quarter of independents did. That could indicate some danger for Trump and his party going into next year’s elections, which will be pivotal in Maine with an open gubernatorial seat and U.S. Sen. Susan Collins on the ballot.
Trump remains underwater in Democratic-leaning Maine. He carries 45 percent here, which is in line with his vote share in the 2024 election. He won the conservative 2nd Congressional District for the third straight race, showing the state’s growing north-south political divide.
The president’s flurry of executive actions are generally polarizing as well. Majorities of Mainers disapproved of his blanket pardons of those who rioted at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, as well as his attempts to end birthright citizenship and rename the Gulf of Mexico.
Mainers were evenly split on ending foreign aid. Majorities approved of some of Trump’s other actions, including declassifying certain files on the 1960s assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and his brother, Robert F. Kennedy, as well as reinstating servicemembers who refused the COVID-19 vaccine.
UNH conducted an online survey of 855 Mainers between Feb. 13 and 17. The error margin is plus or minus 3.4 percentage points. The university’s survey center routinely polls in Maine and other New England states.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
