New poll details Americans’ views on Trump and Musk

President Donald Trump, taking questions from reporters on Thursday, touted that 'a lot of great things are happening.'

But Americans, nearly eight weeks into Trump's second tour of duty in the White House, seem divided on the job he's doing steering the country.

Trump's approval rating stood in negative territory at 42%-53% among registered voters nationwide in a new Quinnipiac University national poll conducted March 6-10 and released on Thursday.

That's down from 46% approval and 43% disapproval in Quinnipiac's survey from late January, in the days after Trump's second inauguration.

The president was also underwater in a CNN poll (46%-53%) conducted March 6-10 and released this week.

But Trump was above water in three other surveys in the field in recent days. 

And Trump, who has long kept a close eye on public opinion polling, took to social media on Monday to showcase his 'Highest Approval Ratings Since Inauguration.'

Trump's poll numbers are an improvement over his first term, when he started out in negative territory and remained there for his four-year term.

An average of all the most recent national polls indicates that Trump's approval ratings are slightly above water. However, Trump has seen his numbers edge down slightly since returning to the White House in late January, when an average of his polls indicated the president's approval rating in the low 50s and his disapproval in the mid 40s.

'A noticeable uptick of discontent can be seen over President Trump's handling of a range of issues: from Ukraine to the economy to the federal workforce,' Quinnipiac polling analyst Tim Malloy highlighted in the survey's release.

The president's approval rating was underwater in nine of the 10 issues tested in the Quinnipiac survey, with his handling of trade with China the only issue where most respondents gave him a thumbs-up.

And on the top issue on the minds of Americans, the economy, Trump stood at 41%-54%.

It was the third poll conducted this month, after the CNN survey and a Reuters/Ipsos poll, to spell trouble for Trump on the economy, which arguably was the most important issue that boosted him to victory in last November's presidential election.

On his handling of the federal workforce, the president stood at 40% approval and 55% disapproval in the Quinnipiac survey.

Trump, through his recently created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), is on a mission to overhaul and downsize the federal government.

Trump named Elon Musk, the world's richest person and the chief executive of Tesla and SpaceX, to steer the organization.

DOGE has swept through federal agencies, rooting out what the White House argues was billions in wasteful federal spending. It has also taken a meat cleaver to the federal workforce, resulting in a massive downsizing of employees. The moves by DOGE have triggered a slew of lawsuits in response.

Sixty percent of voters questioned in the poll disapprove of the way Musk and DOGE are dealing with workers employed by the federal government, with only 36% approving.

And the survey's release adds that '54% of voters think Elon Musk and DOGE are hurting the country, while 40% think they are helping the country.'

The CNN poll indicated that more than 6 in 10 thought the cuts by DOGE would go too far and that important federal programs would be shut down, with 37% saying the cuts wouldn't go far enough in eliminating fraud and waste in the government.

It's no surprise that there's a massive partisan divide in the latest polls when it comes to Trump and DOGE.

Democrats, by a 96%-2% margin in the Quinnipiac survey, gave the president a thumbs-down on the job he's doing in office, while Republicans approved by an 89%-9% margin. Independent voters disapproved, 58%-36%.

There was also a large partisan gap over how Musk and DOGE are performing, with more than three-quarters of Republicans approving and 96% of Democrats and more than two-thirds of independents disapproving.

The poll also asked respondents about Vice President JD Vance's performance in office. Vance stood at 41% approval and 49% disapproval.

Quinnipiac's survey questioned 1,198 registered voters nationwide for their latest poll. The survey's overall sampling error was plus or minus 2.8 percentage points.