Elon Musk’s fall in Republican politics has been swift and brutal — once Trump’s right-hand man, he’s now being treated like political poison, according to GOP insiders.
“He’s finished, done, gone. He polls terrible. People hate him,” one GOP operative told Politico. “He’d go to Wisconsin thinking he can buy people’s votes, wear the cheese hat, act like a 9-year-old. … It doesn’t work. It’s offensive to people.”
That kind of blunt talk from Republicans signals just how far Musk has fallen from grace in the party he once helped lead. Not long ago, he was Trump’s go-to guy — running the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and overseeing the firing of 200,000 federal workers in a brutal effort to slash government spending.
Now? He’s being dropped — quietly, but clearly.
Even longtime GOP pollster Frank Luntz admitted the backlash is real: “The public supported the effort to end wasteful Washington spending, but they did not support the way that it was done.”
He added, “His mission to cut the waste from Washington was certainly helpful, but the language he used wasn’t.”
Some Republicans are trying to soften the blow, like Sen. Jim Justice (R-WV), a loyal Trump ally.
He called Musk a “patriot” who did “good” work — but said things went too far.
“We got too close to the fence. We mowed too far,” Justice said. “We just adjust. That’s the process that’s going on.”
But behind the scenes, the break is more obvious.
Trump’s inner circle has stopped talking about Musk. His top advisers don’t promote him. The White House social media team has gone quiet. And Trump himself — who used to post about Musk constantly — hasn’t mentioned him at all since early April.
In fact, Politico reports that Trump used to mention Musk around four times a week on Truth Social during February and March. Since April? Zero.
When asked directly about Musk’s sudden disappearance, the White House wouldn’t even say his name.
“The mission of DOGE — to cut waste, fraud, and abuse — will surely continue,” said press secretary Karoline Leavitt. “DOGE employees who onboarded at their respective agencies will continue to work with President Trump’s cabinet to make our government more efficient.”
Democratic strategist Jesse Ferguson says the problem goes beyond Musk as a person.
“He wrote their playbook,” Ferguson said. “And it’s not about theoretical blame, it’s about real-world damage that he and Trump have caused that will be litigated all through the midterms.”
Bottom line: Elon Musk was once a rising GOP star. Now he’s political dead weight. And the party is cutting him loose.
