What do North Carolinians think about Trump, Musk and DOGE? What a new poll says
President Donald Trump is viewed more favorably in North Carolina than he was at the same point in his first term, but residents are wary of billionaire Elon Musk’s work within the Trump administration and mostly oppose cuts to 14 government agencies.
All of this and other topics made up the findings of a recent poll conducted by Elon University between March 3 and March 11. The poll gathered the responses of 800 adults, and the results were released Tuesday morning.
Trump approval
Elon University’s poll found that 45% of North Carolinians disapprove of Trump’s job performance in his second term, while 42% approve.
While those numbers may not seem to favor Trump, it’s actually a positive for the president. He has less disapproval now from North Carolinians than in the beginning of his first term, in April 2017, when 51% disapproved of his job performance. Coincidentally, 42% approved of his job performance then, too.
Trump, 78, first campaigned for president in 2016, announcing his run on June 16, 2015, from Trump Tower in New York City. He won the 2016 election, but was defeated in his 2020 reelection campaign by President Joe Biden. He then won a second term in office in his 2024 campaign against Vice President Kamala Harris.
Trump won North Carolina in all three election cycles.
Elon’s 2025 poll found that Democrats held the highest disapproval of Trump’s job performance at 87%. He also proved unpopular with Black people, women and those with four-year degrees.
His approval was highest among Republicans, white people and men.
DOGE
Musk and his unofficial Department of Government Efficiency didn’t rate as well among North Carolinians.
Of those polled, 51% said they don’t trust that he is working in the best interest of the public. The majority of Democrats — 85% — said they completely or somewhat distrust Musk.
Republicans, however, at 76% said they completely or somewhat trust Musk.
But few of those polled— 34% — believe there will be a major reduction in overall spending in the upcoming years, and 45% believe there will be no change or minor changes in spending.
DOGE, created by executive order on Jan. 20, is tasked with “maximizing governmental efficiency and productivity.” So far, Musk and his team have tried to do this by slashing federal jobs and ending federal programs.
The Elon University Poll found that not only did the majority of North Carolinians disbelieve that there will be a reduction in spending, 21% believe that the government will spend more within a few years.
And half of those polled said they support a lawsuit from Attorney General Jeff Jackson, a Democrat, along with 18 other state attorneys general to stop DOGE from accessing U.S. Treasury Department records. Only 28% opposed the lawsuit.
Earlier this month, North Carolina senators approved a bill that prevents Jackson from filing lawsuits to challenge Trump’s executive orders. The bill has not yet passed the state House of Representatives or been signed into law.
Cutting federal agencies
Trump also campaigned on cutting several federal agencies like the Department of Education and FBI.
But it appears that most North Carolinians support only minor reductions or no changes to both of those federal agencies and about a dozen others.
The poll measured views on cuts to agencies as well as PBS and NPR. The agencies include:
IRS
U.S. Agency for International Development
Department of Education
Environmental Protection Agency
FBI
National Institutes of Health
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Department of Interior
Department of Justice
Department of Defense/Pentagon
Department of Agriculture
National Weather Service
Department of Veterans Affairs
North Carolinians said they support increased funding for most of these agencies, including the Department of Education, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the National Weather Service, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Pentagon, the Department of Justice, the CDC, the Department of the Interior, NIH and the FBI.
Supporters of both parties favored increasing funding to the Department of Veterans Affairs.
When it came to reducing federal spending, employees and the elimination of research grants, 44% of those polled said they think there will be a very or somewhat negative impact. Thirty-four percent believed those moves would have a positive impact.
Republicans saw more potential in these changes, at 64% support, than Democrats, of whom 67% expected negative results.
Trump ended last week by signing an executive order to dismantle the Department of Education. It’s not yet clear what that will entail without congressional approval.
Immigration
When it comes to immigration, North Carolinians are divided on deporting immigrants who entered the United States without permission.
They’re also split on whether they expect deportations to have a positive or negative impact on the nation, their local economies and their local workforce.
The poll found that 38% of North Carolinians believed deporting undocumented immigrants would have a very or somewhat positive impact on the local workforce. But 37% disagreed.
Whether local, county and state law enforcement agencies should help enforce immigration laws at churches, schools and hospitals also saw division among those polled. Forty-one percent said no, while 40% said yes and 19% didn’t know what they thought.
It was clear from the poll that the majority of North Carolinians support a path for immigrants without legal authorization to become citizens if they passed background checks, paid fines and filed taxes.
But in 2013, 80% of those polled agreed with making this pathway available, which in the recent poll fell to 63%.
Both polls found that 51% of North Carolinians believed immigrants benefit the state due to their hard work and job skills. And more people — 37% — believed in 2013 that immigrants were a burden to the state than the 31% polled this month.
This story was originally published March 25, 2025 at 8:00 AM with the headline "What do North Carolinians think about Trump, Musk and DOGE? What a new poll says."
