Brutal Poll Reveals Just How Much Elon Musk’s Power Has Collapsed

The most radical thing about Elon Musk this month is his staggering unpopularity.

Public opinion of the world’s richest man fell by 66 points since his foray into politics, according to a CNN poll released Thursday.

Musk was the most popular person according to a Bloomberg poll in June 2016—but nearly a decade later, his ratings have tanked. This month, just 23 percent of those polled viewed Musk favorably, with 60 percent having an unfavorable opinion of him, making net favorable opinion of the conservative tech tycoon -37 points, CNN reported. Much of that has happened over the past four months, during which his favorability ratings with the GOP have sunk by 55 points.

His sagging numbers have affected the viability of Musk’s third party dreams: Americans report that while they want a third party as an alternative to Democrats and Republicans, they decidedly do not want one started by Musk. Just 22 percent of voters actually favored a Musk-run third party, while 74 percent opposed it, according to CNN.

Other recent reports found similar results. A YouGov poll released Monday found that while nearly half of surveyed Americans—45 percent—felt that a successful third party was imperative for the country, just 11 percent of those polled said they would support Musk’s.

While Americans have long complained of red tape and waste at the upper echelons of the federal government, they did not enjoy the metaphorical “chainsaw” that Musk’s DOGE took to federal agencies and their services. Americans especially did not like Musk’s involvement, a New York Times review of several surveys reported in April.

Musk’s place in American politics has become particularly tenuous since he publicly severed ties with Donald Trump last month, trying (and failing) to kill the president’s “big, beautiful bill” and accusing the president of being involved with child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. Despite Musk threatening to primary all Republicans who supported the budget bill, he was unable to sway a single vote.

President Trump’s followers offered a measly defense against The Wall Street Journal’s exposé of the president’s close relationship with defamed pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. 

The Journal reported that Trump wrote a 50th birthday letter to Epstein in which he used the word “enigma.” 

“Enigmas never age, have you noticed that?” Trump wrote. 

The MAGA base is claiming that Trump would never use a word like enigma. 

“I asked Grok to search every record of Trump speaking or writing to determine if he has ever used the word “enigma” before, and Grok says there is no record of him ever saying or speaking the word,” wrote Sean Davis, founder of The Federalist, a conservative news outlet. 

Billionaire Bill Ackman also chimed in. 

“I find it to be an enigma that Donald Trump would use the word enigma,” he wrote.  

Grok, Ackman, Davis, and others across MAGA claiming the same thing are very loud and very wrong. There is video footage of Trump saying the word they claim he’s too real (or maybe too stupid?) to use. 

“Carson’s an enigma to me,” Trump said at a rally in 2015, using the word with confidence when describing then-candidate Ben Carson. “Carson’s an enigma.” 

Trump didn’t just use the word correctly, he used it twice in that one speech. The word also appears multiple times in Trump’s books.

Trump earlier tried to discredit the Journal’s report by saying he would never, ever doodle. (Trump’s birthday letter to Epstein allegedly contained a drawing of a nude woman.)

“I never wrote a picture in my life,” Trump said. 

That was also easily debunked, as Trump has made countless sketches that have been auctioned off for thousands of dollars. It’s honestly surprising how weak Trump and MAGA’s excuses are, especially given how indignant and upset he and his inner circle have been acting since the article dropped. He said he doesn’t draw, but there have been multiple drawings of his on the market. His followers say he wouldn’t say those words, but he’s on camera saying them. He would have been better off just outright denying the letter, rather than trying to pick specific parts of the report to rebuff.

Donald Trump’s threats to sue The Wall Street Journal have extended to the daily’s owner, Rupert Murdoch.

The president has promised to sue the newspaper over its latest report that Trump penned a cozy and salacious letter to his “pal” Jeffrey Epstein for the child sex trafficker’s 50th birthday. By Friday, that scheme had extended to include Murdoch, the multibillionaire conservative media mogul who Trump claimed he would force to “testify” in the lawsuit.

“I look forward to getting Rupert Murdoch to testify in my lawsuit against him and his ‘pile of garbage’ newspaper, the WSJ. That will be an interesting experience!!!” Trump posted on Truth Social.

The Journal reported that Trump wrote the letter at Ghislaine Maxwell’s request, as part of a compilation of messages celebrating the glitterati socialite in 2003. Other notable figures accused of being involved in the project include Harvard University professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz, who defended Epstein during his first criminal trial, and billionaire Leslie Wexner, the former CEO of Victoria’s Secret and co-founder of Bath & Body Works, Inc. Dershowitz did not deny to the Journal that he may have taken part in the collaboration.

“A pal is a wonderful thing. Happy Birthday—and may every day be another wonderful secret,” Trump concluded his letter to Epstein, according to the Journal.

The Journal reported that Trump’s letter was framed by a crude drawing of a nude woman, done in Sharpie. His signature on the note was scrawled between the woman’s legs and resembled pubic hair.

“The Wall Street Journal printed a FAKE letter, supposedly to Epstein,” Trump posted to Truth Social Thursday shortly after the report’s publication. “These are not my words, not the way I talk. Also, I don’t draw pictures. I told Rupert Murdoch it was a Scam, that he shouldn’t print this Fake Story. But he did, and now I’m going to sue his ass off, and that of his third rate newspaper. Thank you for your attention to this matter!  DJT”

Facing enormous pressure from his base, Trump ordered the Justice Department to release additional documents pertaining to its investigation into Epstein. The White House did not specify if the documents would be made public, and did not explain the sudden contradiction after Trump had spent the better part of the last week insisting that the Epstein fiasco was a Democrat-invented “hoax.”

Donald Trump is already lying about why CBS’s The Late Show With Stephen Colbert was canceled. 

“I absolutely love that Colbert’ got fired. His talent was even less than his ratings,” Trump wrote on Truth Social Friday morning. “I hear Jimmy Kimmel is next. Has even less talent than Colbert! Greg Gutfeld is better than all of them combined, including the Moron on NBC who ruined the once great Tonight Show.”

But the decision clearly had nothing to do with ratings. 

In the second quarter of 2025, Late Show averaged 2.42 million viewers across 41 first-run episodes, according to Late Nighter, summoning a larger viewership than competitors in that time slot, including ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live! and NBC’s The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Meanwhile, Fox News’s Gutfeld did surpass Colbert during its earlier time slot, with an average viewership of 3.29 million people. But when considering the host’s penchant for racist and antisemitic drivel, there isn’t much to idolize there.  

Colbert’s cancellation came just days after the host called out Paramount, CBS’s parent company, for agreeing to pay $16 million to the Trump administration to settle a lawsuit over an edited 60 Minutes interview of failed Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris. It’s worth noting that Fox News has absolutely shredded taped interviews with the president in a desperate attempt to make him sound normal. 

During his monologue, Colbert argued that Paramount knew the lawsuit was “completely without merit” but agreed to pay a “big fat bribe” to ease its sale to Skydance Media—a deal that needs approval from the president.

Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren took to social media Thursday night to defend Colbert. “CBS canceled Colbert’s show just THREE DAYS after Colbert called out CBS parent company Paramount for its $16M settlement with Trump—a deal that looks like bribery,” she wrote on X. “America deserves to know if his show was canceled for political reasons.”

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders also backed up the late night host. “CBS’s billionaire owners pay Trump $16 million to settle a bogus lawsuit while trying to sell the network to Skydance. Stephen Colbert, an extraordinary talent and the most popular late night host, slams the deal. Days later, he’s fired. Do I think this is a coincidence? NO,” he wrote on X. 

Fellow late night host Jimmy Kimmel, who was name-dropped in Trump’s rant, defended Colbert. “Love you Stephen. Fuck you and all your Sheldons CBS,” Kimmel wrote in a post on Instagram. 

Alina Habba, Trump’s shamelessly biased personal lawyer, will soon be out of the job he gave her.

The president appointed Habba, who defended him in his hush-money and E. Jean Carroll defamation cases, as interim U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey in March. The role was for 120 days, allowing Habba to bypass Senate confirmation. But those 120 days are up next Tuesday, and all signs currently point to Habba not getting officially confirmed, as New Jersey Senators Andy Kim and Cory Booker have sworn to block her nomination.

A source close to the situation told The New Jersey Globe that Habba admitted to her staff on Thursday that she’s not sure what’s next. “I don’t know what’s going to happen, and I’m grateful for my time. This is an amazing office, and I hope I can stay,” she reportedly said.

The end of Habba’s DA tenure prevents one of Trump’s most ardent supporters from grasping even more power. Her history indicates that she would have only used her role to blindly carry out the president’s agenda.

In October, amid the tragedy of Hurricane Helene, Habba falsely claimed that the Biden-Harris administration left “babies floating in the water.” Fox News of all outlets checked her live on air. When Trump fell fast asleep during his own trial, Habba chalked it up to him having tired eyes. “President Trump, he reads a lot,” she said. “He’s been sitting there, as he’s forced to, at the threat of going to jail if he’s not sitting there, for what I assume would be a very mundane day.” She demonstrated a shocking lack of legal expertise at that same trial when she clearly misunderstood what “due process” entailed. And in March, she said that the thousands of military veterans that DOGE fired were simply unfit.

New Jersey seems to be safe from Habba’s sheer incompetence for the time being. Only time will tell if she remains in Trump’s orbit or fades into MAGA obscurity.