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| Meta Title | How Americans Really Feel About Elon Musk | FiveThirtyEight |
| Meta Description | Hint: His unscientific polls donât tell us much. |
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| Boilerpipe Text | PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY FIVETHIRTYEIGHT / GETTY IMAGES
Welcome to
Pollapalooza
, our weekly polling roundup.
Twitterâs new owner, Elon Musk, might not have any credibility as a pollster in
FiveThirtyEightâs rating system
, but heâs a pollster nonetheless. Kinda.
Soon after he took control of Twitter in October, the once-
richest person in the world
implemented a new management style that allowed users to make key decisions via polls. Should former President Donald Trump
be allowed to rejoin
the platform after supposedly being
permanently banned
last year? A
slim majority of users
said yes, so â âVox Populi, Vox Dei,â
as Musk wrote
â he was back. Should Musk bring back Vine,
the short-form video app
which shut down in 2016?
Sure! Maybe!
The people have spoken!
The stakes of the polls escalated quickly. On Sunday, Musk put his own job security on the line, vowing to abide by the results of his own, unscientific poll. âShould I step down as head of Twitter?â he
asked users
. By Monday, he had an answer: By a 15-point margin â 57.5 percent to 42.5 percent â respondents said he should resign from his post atop the social media giant. Musk said on Tuesday he plans to honor the pollâs results as soon as he finds â
someone foolish enough
â to succeed him. Itâs unclear when that will happen, or how much power he will
actually
be relinquishing.
Itâs too bad for Musk that he didnât take a more scientific approach, though, because according to a number of professionally conducted polls, Americans still have a somewhat favorable opinion of him â although they do hold negative views of social media companies generally.Â
Letâs kick things off with Muskâs own question of whether he should quit. Though a majority of respondents in his own survey said âyes,â an overnight poll conducted by
HarrisX
in mid-December found that a whopping 61 percent of U.S. Twitter users and 53 percent of U.S. adults actually want Musk to stay at the helm. Meanwhile, another December poll, this one from
Quinnipiac University
, found that Americans were almost evenly split on their feelings toward how Musk runs the social media giant: 37 percent said they approved of the way heâs operating Twitter, 37 percent disapproved and 25 percent offered no opinion.Â
And poll after poll shows that Musk isnât
overwhelmingly
unpopular with the American public, either. According to that same Quinnipiac survey, 36 percent of Americans said they viewed Musk positively versus 33 percent who viewed him negatively. (Another 26 percent said they hadnât heard enough about him to make an opinion either way.) A
YouGov/The Economist
poll, fielded in November, found that 41 percent of U.S. adults had a âveryâ or âsomewhatâ favorable view of Musk compared with 37 percent who viewed him âsomewhatâ or âveryâ unfavorably. These findings come despite evidence showing that, generally, Americans hold negative opinions about social media companies. Quinnipiac, for example, found that 70 percent think that social media giants like Twitter and Facebook âdo more harm than good,â while 18 percent disagreed. Another spring 2022 survey from the
Pew Research Center
, which polled citizens in 19 advanced economies about their views on social media, technology and their influence on society, found that 79 percent of U.S. respondents believed that access to social media and the internet has made people more divided in their political opinions.
The fact that Musk isnât overwhelmingly disliked might come as a surprise to people who have been closely following Twitterâs fate. In a matter of months, he
gutted the companyâs staff
,
drove away major advertisers
and suspended (then unsuspended)
the accounts of several prominent journalists
â
among many other things
. And itâs worth underscoring that not everyone is over the moon with Twitterâs newest CEO. Per Quinnipiac, among U.S. adults, Republicans (63 percent) and white men (51 percent) were the most likely to view Musk favorably. Democrats (9 percent), Black respondents (17 percent) and women (25 percent) were the demographic groups
least
likely to harbor positive opinions toward Musk.Â
And, to be sure, it does look like Muskâs overall favorability numbers have ticked down since purchasing Twitter. Back in April,
YouGov
found that closer to half of U.S. adults (49 percent) had a âveryâ or âsomewhatâ favorable opinion of Musk compared with 31 percent who viewed him âsomewhatâ or âveryâ unfavorably.
Unfortunately, most polls that ask respondents their opinions toward Musk donât ask
why
people feel the way they do. Is his wealth impacting peopleâs views of him? Is his
high name ID
giving him an added advantage? Did his suspension of journalists (which a majority of respondents in a December
CivicScience poll
viewed negatively) depress his favorability ratings? Topline survey findings donât give us a lot of clues. What we do know, however, is that people view Musk as an influential and successful businessman â and maybe someone whoâs a bit quirky, too. And that might be why, despite his many flubs at Twitter, Americans donât have overwhelmingly negative views of him.
For example, YouGovâs April survey asked respondents how influential they felt Musk was in the tech world and the overwhelming majority of respondents (80 percent) said he was âveryâ or âsomewhatâ influential. Another question on the same polls asked the same sample to select terms that they felt described Musk. The winners were: rich (60 percent), an entrepreneur (49 percent), an innovator (39 percent) and eccentric (37 percent). Meanwhile, a December
YouGov
survey found that 58 percent of U.S. adults believe that Musk is a âsuccessful business personâ versus 22 percent who said he wasnât.Â
So have Twitter users actually seen the last of Musk, then? It doesnât seem like heâs planning to bow out entirely â or even partially. After announcing that he would resign as CEO once he could find a sufficiently foolish successor,
he said that his next steps
would be to âjust run the software & servers teams.â So the main change to Twitter â at least in the short-term â might be the way Musk conducts his polls (he seemed to agree with a userâs comment which suggested that,
from now on
, only Twitter blue subscribers should be allowed to vote in âpolicy relatedâ polls). Or maybe Musk actually will step back and open the door for someone else â hello,
Snoop Dogg
and
Dionne Warwick
â to take over at Twitter in 2023. Your guess is as good as mine.
Other polling bites
Would you consider yourself a poor gift wrapper? If so, your humility might put you in the minority, according to new December polling data from
YouGov
. Per their survey, 64 percent of U.S. adults said they considered themselves to be either âveryâ or âsomewhatâ good at gift wrapping. Nineteen percent of respondents said they were somewhat bad at gift-wrapping, while another 11 percent said they were
very
bad at it. Youâre also in the minority, per
YouGov
, if youâve never regifted a present to someone else. Only about one-third of adult respondents (31 percent) claimed that theyâve never done so, but most admitted to doing it: 29 percent said theyâve regifted once or twice, 18 percent said theyâve regifted âseveral timesâ and 13 percent of respondents have regifted âmany times.â
The end of the calendar year has also led certain national pollsters â
Marist
, specifically â to find out which word or phrase U.S. adults find most irritating. This yearâs winner/loser? âWoke.â
According to their survey
, about one-third of Americans (35 percent) agree that âwokeâ is the most annoying word used in conversation. Coming in second was the word âwhateverâ (22 percent), followed by âit is what it isâ (15 percent). But while attacking âwokeâ and âwokeismâ was initially the crusade-du-jour
by the GOP
, it appears that a number of survey respondents â regardless of party ID â found the term annoying. In fact, 31 percent of Democrats, 39 percent of Republicans and 38 percent of independent voters listed âwokeâ as the most bothersome word used in conversation. For context, 2021âs winners,
according to Marist
, were âTrumpâ and âcoronavirus.â
With the 2022 midterm elections behind us, all eyes are now on the 2024 presidential race. And new polling data from
Morning Consult
seemingly suggests that voters
might
be looking at another head-to-head matchup between Trump and President Biden (assuming the latter runs for reelection,
which looks increasingly likely
). On the Republican side,
Morning Consultâs tracking
among potential GOP primary voters
1
gives Trump a wide lead (48 percent) over potential competitors like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, (33 percent) former Vice President Mike Pence (8 percent), Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (3 percent) and others. Pitted directly against DeSantis, however, Trump has a harder time breaking through. When potential GOP primary voters were asked who theyâd vote for in a primary election or caucus if it were held in their state today, 45 percent of respondents said DeSantis while 44 percent said Trump. Eleven percent said they didnât know or had no opinion.Â
According to newly released survey data from
Gallup
, Americansâ assessment of their own mental health is at an all-time low. Currently, just about 3-in-10 U.S. adults (31 percent) described their mental or emotional well-being as âexcellentâ â the lowest rating Gallup has recorded since it began asking respondents this question in 2001. The author notes, however, that part of the downward trend might be attributed to the COVID-19: Before then, Americansâ âexcellentâ ratings ranged in the 40s. Those numbers didnât begin to tick down until late 2020; that year, the percentage of adults who felt that their mental health was in âexcellentâ condition dropped to the 30s for the first time at 34 percent. The demographic groups
least
likely to say that their mental health and emotional well-being were âexcellentâ were people between the ages of 18 and 34 (20 percent), people who made less than $40,000 annually (21 percent) and women (28 percent).Â
In a calendar year that featured a major election and the rippling effects of a global pandemic, which headlines stuck out most to Americans? According to
Morning Consult
, this yearâs most salient news events, according to registered voters, were the Uvalde shooting (73 percent), the fall of Roe v. Wade (71 percent), Queen Elizabeth IIâs death (71 percent) and Hurricane Ian (70 percent). But there was a partisan gap in news salience, too. While Democrats (78 percent) and independent voters (72 percent) both listed the Uvalde shooting â
which left 21 people dead
â as the top news event that they saw, heard or read âa lotâ about, Republicans were more likely to put Hurricane Ian (70 percent) in the No. 1 slot. Among registered GOP voters, the Texas shooting ranked fourth (69 percent) after the hurricane, the fall of Roe (70 percent) and the queenâs death (70 percent).Â
Biden approvalÂ
According to FiveThirtyEightâs
presidential approval tracker
,
2
43 percent of Americans approve of the job Biden is doing as president, while 51.6 percent disapprove (a net approval rating of -8.6 points). At this time
last week
, 43.0 percent approved and 51.3 percent disapproved (a net approval rating of -8.3 points). One month ago, Biden had an approval rating of 41.5 percent and a disapproval rating of 53.5 percent, for a net approval rating of -12.0 points.
Footnotes
As of Dec. 20.
As of Thursday at 5 p.m. Eastern.
Alex Samuels was a politics reporter at FiveThirtyEight.
@AlexSamuelsx5 |
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# How Americans Really Feel About Elon Musk
## Hint: His unscientific polls donât tell us much.
By [Alex Samuels](https://fivethirtyeight.com/contributors/alex-samuels/)
Dec. 23, 2022, at 6:00 AM

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY FIVETHIRTYEIGHT / GETTY IMAGES
Welcome to [Pollapalooza](https://fivethirtyeight.com/?s=pollapalooza), our weekly polling roundup.
***
Twitterâs new owner, Elon Musk, might not have any credibility as a pollster in [FiveThirtyEightâs rating system](https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/pollster-ratings/), but heâs a pollster nonetheless. Kinda.
Soon after he took control of Twitter in October, the once-[richest person in the world](https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/12/elon-musk-is-no-longer-the-richest-person-in-the-world.html) implemented a new management style that allowed users to make key decisions via polls. Should former President Donald Trump [be allowed to rejoin](https://www.axios.com/2022/11/20/donald-trump-back-on-twitter-elon-musk) the platform after supposedly being [permanently banned](https://blog.twitter.com/en_us/topics/company/2020/suspension) last year? A [slim majority of users](https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1593767953706921985) said yes, so â âVox Populi, Vox Dei,â [as Musk wrote](https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1594131768298315777) â he was back. Should Musk bring back Vine, [the short-form video app](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-10-31/musk-polls-twitter-users-on-bringing-back-tiktok-precursor-vine) which shut down in 2016? [Sure! Maybe\!](https://www.cnbc.com/2022/11/01/elon-musk-might-bring-back-vine-a-predecessor-of-tiktok-shut-down-by-twitter.html) The people have spoken\!
The stakes of the polls escalated quickly. On Sunday, Musk put his own job security on the line, vowing to abide by the results of his own, unscientific poll. âShould I step down as head of Twitter?â he [asked users](https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1604617643973124097). By Monday, he had an answer: By a 15-point margin â 57.5 percent to 42.5 percent â respondents said he should resign from his post atop the social media giant. Musk said on Tuesday he plans to honor the pollâs results as soon as he finds â[someone foolish enough](https://www.reuters.com/technology/musk-says-hell-step-down-twitter-ceo-after-finding-replacement-2022-12-21/)â to succeed him. Itâs unclear when that will happen, or how much power he will *actually* be relinquishing.
Itâs too bad for Musk that he didnât take a more scientific approach, though, because according to a number of professionally conducted polls, Americans still have a somewhat favorable opinion of him â although they do hold negative views of social media companies generally.
Letâs kick things off with Muskâs own question of whether he should quit. Though a majority of respondents in his own survey said âyes,â an overnight poll conducted by [HarrisX](https://mailchi.mp/harrisx.com/a-majority-of-americans-want-elon-musk-to-stay-on-as-twitter-ceo-finds-harrisx-overnight-poll) in mid-December found that a whopping 61 percent of U.S. Twitter users and 53 percent of U.S. adults actually want Musk to stay at the helm. Meanwhile, another December poll, this one from [Quinnipiac University](https://poll.qu.edu/poll-release?releaseid=3863), found that Americans were almost evenly split on their feelings toward how Musk runs the social media giant: 37 percent said they approved of the way heâs operating Twitter, 37 percent disapproved and 25 percent offered no opinion.
And poll after poll shows that Musk isnât *overwhelmingly* unpopular with the American public, either. According to that same Quinnipiac survey, 36 percent of Americans said they viewed Musk positively versus 33 percent who viewed him negatively. (Another 26 percent said they hadnât heard enough about him to make an opinion either way.) A [YouGov/The Economist](https://docs.cdn.yougov.com/h45mt3xoby/econTabReport.pdf) poll, fielded in November, found that 41 percent of U.S. adults had a âveryâ or âsomewhatâ favorable view of Musk compared with 37 percent who viewed him âsomewhatâ or âveryâ unfavorably. These findings come despite evidence showing that, generally, Americans hold negative opinions about social media companies. Quinnipiac, for example, found that 70 percent think that social media giants like Twitter and Facebook âdo more harm than good,â while 18 percent disagreed. Another spring 2022 survey from the [Pew Research Center](https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2022/12/06/social-media-seen-as-mostly-good-for-democracy-across-many-nations-but-u-s-is-a-major-outlier/), which polled citizens in 19 advanced economies about their views on social media, technology and their influence on society, found that 79 percent of U.S. respondents believed that access to social media and the internet has made people more divided in their political opinions.
RECOMMENDED
[](https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/second-gop-debate-smaller-trump/)
Politics
[The Second GOP Debate Could Be Smaller, With Or Without Trump](https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/second-gop-debate-smaller-trump/)
[Read Now](https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/second-gop-debate-smaller-trump/)
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[The Second GOP Debate Could Be Smaller, With Or Without Trump](https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/second-gop-debate-smaller-trump/)
[](https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/americans-oppose-biden-impeachment-house-republicans/)
[What Americans Think Of The Biden Impeachment Inquiry](https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/americans-oppose-biden-impeachment-house-republicans/)
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[The Senate Is Losing One Of Its Few Remaining Moderate Republicans](https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/mitt-romney-retire-senate-moderate-republican/)
The fact that Musk isnât overwhelmingly disliked might come as a surprise to people who have been closely following Twitterâs fate. In a matter of months, he [gutted the companyâs staff](https://www.courthousenews.com/mass-exodus-from-twitter-confirmed-after-elon-musk-guts-staff-and-increases-workload/), [drove away major advertisers](https://www.npr.org/2022/11/25/1139180002/twitter-loses-50-top-advertisers-elon-musk) and suspended (then unsuspended) [the accounts of several prominent journalists](https://www.reuters.com/technology/elon-musks-twitter-suspension-journalists-draws-global-backlash-2022-12-16/) â [among many other things](https://www.insider.com/elon-musk-takeover-twitter-controversies-antisemitism-blue-checkmarks-conspiracy-theories-2022-10). And itâs worth underscoring that not everyone is over the moon with Twitterâs newest CEO. Per Quinnipiac, among U.S. adults, Republicans (63 percent) and white men (51 percent) were the most likely to view Musk favorably. Democrats (9 percent), Black respondents (17 percent) and women (25 percent) were the demographic groups *least* likely to harbor positive opinions toward Musk.
And, to be sure, it does look like Muskâs overall favorability numbers have ticked down since purchasing Twitter. Back in April, [YouGov](https://docs.cdn.yougov.com/wlken5wyfy/elon-musk-twitter-toplines.pdf) found that closer to half of U.S. adults (49 percent) had a âveryâ or âsomewhatâ favorable opinion of Musk compared with 31 percent who viewed him âsomewhatâ or âveryâ unfavorably.
Unfortunately, most polls that ask respondents their opinions toward Musk donât ask *why* people feel the way they do. Is his wealth impacting peopleâs views of him? Is his [high name ID](https://today.yougov.com/topics/economy/explore/public_figure/Elon_Musk) giving him an added advantage? Did his suspension of journalists (which a majority of respondents in a December [CivicScience poll](https://civicscience.com/immediate-insights-majority-of-americans-disapprove-of-elon-musks-decision-to-suspend-journalists/) viewed negatively) depress his favorability ratings? Topline survey findings donât give us a lot of clues. What we do know, however, is that people view Musk as an influential and successful businessman â and maybe someone whoâs a bit quirky, too. And that might be why, despite his many flubs at Twitter, Americans donât have overwhelmingly negative views of him.
For example, YouGovâs April survey asked respondents how influential they felt Musk was in the tech world and the overwhelming majority of respondents (80 percent) said he was âveryâ or âsomewhatâ influential. Another question on the same polls asked the same sample to select terms that they felt described Musk. The winners were: rich (60 percent), an entrepreneur (49 percent), an innovator (39 percent) and eccentric (37 percent). Meanwhile, a December [YouGov](https://today.yougov.com/topics/politics/survey-results/daily/2022/12/20/09d47/2) survey found that 58 percent of U.S. adults believe that Musk is a âsuccessful business personâ versus 22 percent who said he wasnât.
So have Twitter users actually seen the last of Musk, then? It doesnât seem like heâs planning to bow out entirely â or even partially. After announcing that he would resign as CEO once he could find a sufficiently foolish successor, [he said that his next steps](https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1605372724800393216) would be to âjust run the software & servers teams.â So the main change to Twitter â at least in the short-term â might be the way Musk conducts his polls (he seemed to agree with a userâs comment which suggested that, [from now on](https://gizmodo.com/elon-musk-twitter-twitter-blue-poll-1849914080), only Twitter blue subscribers should be allowed to vote in âpolicy relatedâ polls). Or maybe Musk actually will step back and open the door for someone else â hello, [Snoop Dogg](https://twitter.com/SnoopDogg/status/1604656918844256257?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet) and [Dionne Warwick](https://twitter.com/dionnewarwick/status/1605362816386338816?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw) â to take over at Twitter in 2023. Your guess is as good as mine.
## **Other polling bites**
- Would you consider yourself a poor gift wrapper? If so, your humility might put you in the minority, according to new December polling data from [YouGov](https://today.yougov.com/topics/politics/survey-results/daily/2022/12/19/afad9/2). Per their survey, 64 percent of U.S. adults said they considered themselves to be either âveryâ or âsomewhatâ good at gift wrapping. Nineteen percent of respondents said they were somewhat bad at gift-wrapping, while another 11 percent said they were *very* bad at it. Youâre also in the minority, per [YouGov](https://today.yougov.com/topics/politics/survey-results/daily/2022/12/19/afad9/3), if youâve never regifted a present to someone else. Only about one-third of adult respondents (31 percent) claimed that theyâve never done so, but most admitted to doing it: 29 percent said theyâve regifted once or twice, 18 percent said theyâve regifted âseveral timesâ and 13 percent of respondents have regifted âmany times.â
- The end of the calendar year has also led certain national pollsters â [Marist](https://maristpoll.marist.edu/polls/most-annoying-word-or-phrase/), specifically â to find out which word or phrase U.S. adults find most irritating. This yearâs winner/loser? âWoke.â [According to their survey](https://maristpoll.marist.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Marist-Poll_USA-NOS-and-Tables_Word_202212131025.pdf), about one-third of Americans (35 percent) agree that âwokeâ is the most annoying word used in conversation. Coming in second was the word âwhateverâ (22 percent), followed by âit is what it isâ (15 percent). But while attacking âwokeâ and âwokeismâ was initially the crusade-du-jour [by the GOP](https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/why-attacking-cancel-culture-and-woke-people-is-becoming-the-gops-new-political-strategy/), it appears that a number of survey respondents â regardless of party ID â found the term annoying. In fact, 31 percent of Democrats, 39 percent of Republicans and 38 percent of independent voters listed âwokeâ as the most bothersome word used in conversation. For context, 2021âs winners, [according to Marist](https://maristpoll.marist.edu/polls/marist-national-poll-most-annoying-word-december-2021/), were âTrumpâ and âcoronavirus.â
- With the 2022 midterm elections behind us, all eyes are now on the 2024 presidential race. And new polling data from [Morning Consult](https://morningconsult.com/2022/12/21/2023-lookahead-republicans-to-determine-trumps-role-in-party-future/) seemingly suggests that voters *might* be looking at another head-to-head matchup between Trump and President Biden (assuming the latter runs for reelection, [which looks increasingly likely](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/nov/10/joe-biden-2024-president-election)). On the Republican side, [Morning Consultâs tracking](https://morningconsult.com/2024-gop-primary-election-tracker/) among potential GOP primary voters1 gives Trump a wide lead (48 percent) over potential competitors like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, (33 percent) former Vice President Mike Pence (8 percent), Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (3 percent) and others. Pitted directly against DeSantis, however, Trump has a harder time breaking through. When potential GOP primary voters were asked who theyâd vote for in a primary election or caucus if it were held in their state today, 45 percent of respondents said DeSantis while 44 percent said Trump. Eleven percent said they didnât know or had no opinion.
- According to newly released survey data from [Gallup](https://news.gallup.com/poll/467303/americans-reported-mental-health-new-low-seek-help.aspx), Americansâ assessment of their own mental health is at an all-time low. Currently, just about 3-in-10 U.S. adults (31 percent) described their mental or emotional well-being as âexcellentâ â the lowest rating Gallup has recorded since it began asking respondents this question in 2001. The author notes, however, that part of the downward trend might be attributed to the COVID-19: Before then, Americansâ âexcellentâ ratings ranged in the 40s. Those numbers didnât begin to tick down until late 2020; that year, the percentage of adults who felt that their mental health was in âexcellentâ condition dropped to the 30s for the first time at 34 percent. The demographic groups *least* likely to say that their mental health and emotional well-being were âexcellentâ were people between the ages of 18 and 34 (20 percent), people who made less than \$40,000 annually (21 percent) and women (28 percent).
- In a calendar year that featured a major election and the rippling effects of a global pandemic, which headlines stuck out most to Americans? According to [Morning Consult](https://morningconsult.com/2022/12/19/seen-read-heard-2022-analysis/), this yearâs most salient news events, according to registered voters, were the Uvalde shooting (73 percent), the fall of Roe v. Wade (71 percent), Queen Elizabeth IIâs death (71 percent) and Hurricane Ian (70 percent). But there was a partisan gap in news salience, too. While Democrats (78 percent) and independent voters (72 percent) both listed the Uvalde shooting â [which left 21 people dead](https://www.cbsnews.com/live-updates/texas-school-shooting-victims-uvalde-robb-elementary/) â as the top news event that they saw, heard or read âa lotâ about, Republicans were more likely to put Hurricane Ian (70 percent) in the No. 1 slot. Among registered GOP voters, the Texas shooting ranked fourth (69 percent) after the hurricane, the fall of Roe (70 percent) and the queenâs death (70 percent).
## **Biden approval**

According to FiveThirtyEightâs [presidential approval tracker](https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/biden-approval-rating/),2 43 percent of Americans approve of the job Biden is doing as president, while 51.6 percent disapprove (a net approval rating of -8.6 points). At this time [last week](https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/americans-want-more-affordable-housing-just-not-nearby/), 43.0 percent approved and 51.3 percent disapproved (a net approval rating of -8.3 points). One month ago, Biden had an approval rating of 41.5 percent and a disapproval rating of 53.5 percent, for a net approval rating of -12.0 points.
## Footnotes
1. As of Dec. 20.
2. As of Thursday at 5 p.m. Eastern.
Alex Samuels was a politics reporter at FiveThirtyEight. [@AlexSamuelsx5](https://twitter.com/AlexSamuelsx5)
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- [](https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/why-twitter-is-unlikely-to-become-the-digital-town-square-elon-musk-envisions/ "Why Twitter Is Unlikely To Become The âDigital Town Squareâ Elon Musk Envisions")
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[Why Twitter Is Unlikely To Become The âDigital Town Squareâ Elon Musk Envisions](https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/why-twitter-is-unlikely-to-become-the-digital-town-square-elon-musk-envisions/) Apr 29, 2022
- [](https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/many-americans-support-trumps-ban-from-facebook-but-how-much-does-he-need-social-media-to-make-a-comeback/ "How Trump's Removal From Social Media Could Affect His Grasp On The GOP")
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[How Trump's Removal From Social Media Could Affect His Grasp On The GOP](https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/many-americans-support-trumps-ban-from-facebook-but-how-much-does-he-need-social-media-to-make-a-comeback/) Jun 11, 2021
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[What Kicking Trump Off Twitter Can â And Canât â Do](https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/what-kicking-trump-off-twitter-can-and-cant-do/) Jan 13, 2021
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| Readable Markdown | 
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY FIVETHIRTYEIGHT / GETTY IMAGES
Welcome to [Pollapalooza](https://fivethirtyeight.com/?s=pollapalooza), our weekly polling roundup.
Twitterâs new owner, Elon Musk, might not have any credibility as a pollster in [FiveThirtyEightâs rating system](https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/pollster-ratings/), but heâs a pollster nonetheless. Kinda.
Soon after he took control of Twitter in October, the once-[richest person in the world](https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/12/elon-musk-is-no-longer-the-richest-person-in-the-world.html) implemented a new management style that allowed users to make key decisions via polls. Should former President Donald Trump [be allowed to rejoin](https://www.axios.com/2022/11/20/donald-trump-back-on-twitter-elon-musk) the platform after supposedly being [permanently banned](https://blog.twitter.com/en_us/topics/company/2020/suspension) last year? A [slim majority of users](https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1593767953706921985) said yes, so â âVox Populi, Vox Dei,â [as Musk wrote](https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1594131768298315777) â he was back. Should Musk bring back Vine, [the short-form video app](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-10-31/musk-polls-twitter-users-on-bringing-back-tiktok-precursor-vine) which shut down in 2016? [Sure! Maybe\!](https://www.cnbc.com/2022/11/01/elon-musk-might-bring-back-vine-a-predecessor-of-tiktok-shut-down-by-twitter.html) The people have spoken\!
The stakes of the polls escalated quickly. On Sunday, Musk put his own job security on the line, vowing to abide by the results of his own, unscientific poll. âShould I step down as head of Twitter?â he [asked users](https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1604617643973124097). By Monday, he had an answer: By a 15-point margin â 57.5 percent to 42.5 percent â respondents said he should resign from his post atop the social media giant. Musk said on Tuesday he plans to honor the pollâs results as soon as he finds â[someone foolish enough](https://www.reuters.com/technology/musk-says-hell-step-down-twitter-ceo-after-finding-replacement-2022-12-21/)â to succeed him. Itâs unclear when that will happen, or how much power he will *actually* be relinquishing.
Itâs too bad for Musk that he didnât take a more scientific approach, though, because according to a number of professionally conducted polls, Americans still have a somewhat favorable opinion of him â although they do hold negative views of social media companies generally.
Letâs kick things off with Muskâs own question of whether he should quit. Though a majority of respondents in his own survey said âyes,â an overnight poll conducted by [HarrisX](https://mailchi.mp/harrisx.com/a-majority-of-americans-want-elon-musk-to-stay-on-as-twitter-ceo-finds-harrisx-overnight-poll) in mid-December found that a whopping 61 percent of U.S. Twitter users and 53 percent of U.S. adults actually want Musk to stay at the helm. Meanwhile, another December poll, this one from [Quinnipiac University](https://poll.qu.edu/poll-release?releaseid=3863), found that Americans were almost evenly split on their feelings toward how Musk runs the social media giant: 37 percent said they approved of the way heâs operating Twitter, 37 percent disapproved and 25 percent offered no opinion.
And poll after poll shows that Musk isnât *overwhelmingly* unpopular with the American public, either. According to that same Quinnipiac survey, 36 percent of Americans said they viewed Musk positively versus 33 percent who viewed him negatively. (Another 26 percent said they hadnât heard enough about him to make an opinion either way.) A [YouGov/The Economist](https://docs.cdn.yougov.com/h45mt3xoby/econTabReport.pdf) poll, fielded in November, found that 41 percent of U.S. adults had a âveryâ or âsomewhatâ favorable view of Musk compared with 37 percent who viewed him âsomewhatâ or âveryâ unfavorably. These findings come despite evidence showing that, generally, Americans hold negative opinions about social media companies. Quinnipiac, for example, found that 70 percent think that social media giants like Twitter and Facebook âdo more harm than good,â while 18 percent disagreed. Another spring 2022 survey from the [Pew Research Center](https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2022/12/06/social-media-seen-as-mostly-good-for-democracy-across-many-nations-but-u-s-is-a-major-outlier/), which polled citizens in 19 advanced economies about their views on social media, technology and their influence on society, found that 79 percent of U.S. respondents believed that access to social media and the internet has made people more divided in their political opinions.
The fact that Musk isnât overwhelmingly disliked might come as a surprise to people who have been closely following Twitterâs fate. In a matter of months, he [gutted the companyâs staff](https://www.courthousenews.com/mass-exodus-from-twitter-confirmed-after-elon-musk-guts-staff-and-increases-workload/), [drove away major advertisers](https://www.npr.org/2022/11/25/1139180002/twitter-loses-50-top-advertisers-elon-musk) and suspended (then unsuspended) [the accounts of several prominent journalists](https://www.reuters.com/technology/elon-musks-twitter-suspension-journalists-draws-global-backlash-2022-12-16/) â [among many other things](https://www.insider.com/elon-musk-takeover-twitter-controversies-antisemitism-blue-checkmarks-conspiracy-theories-2022-10). And itâs worth underscoring that not everyone is over the moon with Twitterâs newest CEO. Per Quinnipiac, among U.S. adults, Republicans (63 percent) and white men (51 percent) were the most likely to view Musk favorably. Democrats (9 percent), Black respondents (17 percent) and women (25 percent) were the demographic groups *least* likely to harbor positive opinions toward Musk.
And, to be sure, it does look like Muskâs overall favorability numbers have ticked down since purchasing Twitter. Back in April, [YouGov](https://docs.cdn.yougov.com/wlken5wyfy/elon-musk-twitter-toplines.pdf) found that closer to half of U.S. adults (49 percent) had a âveryâ or âsomewhatâ favorable opinion of Musk compared with 31 percent who viewed him âsomewhatâ or âveryâ unfavorably.
Unfortunately, most polls that ask respondents their opinions toward Musk donât ask *why* people feel the way they do. Is his wealth impacting peopleâs views of him? Is his [high name ID](https://today.yougov.com/topics/economy/explore/public_figure/Elon_Musk) giving him an added advantage? Did his suspension of journalists (which a majority of respondents in a December [CivicScience poll](https://civicscience.com/immediate-insights-majority-of-americans-disapprove-of-elon-musks-decision-to-suspend-journalists/) viewed negatively) depress his favorability ratings? Topline survey findings donât give us a lot of clues. What we do know, however, is that people view Musk as an influential and successful businessman â and maybe someone whoâs a bit quirky, too. And that might be why, despite his many flubs at Twitter, Americans donât have overwhelmingly negative views of him.
For example, YouGovâs April survey asked respondents how influential they felt Musk was in the tech world and the overwhelming majority of respondents (80 percent) said he was âveryâ or âsomewhatâ influential. Another question on the same polls asked the same sample to select terms that they felt described Musk. The winners were: rich (60 percent), an entrepreneur (49 percent), an innovator (39 percent) and eccentric (37 percent). Meanwhile, a December [YouGov](https://today.yougov.com/topics/politics/survey-results/daily/2022/12/20/09d47/2) survey found that 58 percent of U.S. adults believe that Musk is a âsuccessful business personâ versus 22 percent who said he wasnât.
So have Twitter users actually seen the last of Musk, then? It doesnât seem like heâs planning to bow out entirely â or even partially. After announcing that he would resign as CEO once he could find a sufficiently foolish successor, [he said that his next steps](https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1605372724800393216) would be to âjust run the software & servers teams.â So the main change to Twitter â at least in the short-term â might be the way Musk conducts his polls (he seemed to agree with a userâs comment which suggested that, [from now on](https://gizmodo.com/elon-musk-twitter-twitter-blue-poll-1849914080), only Twitter blue subscribers should be allowed to vote in âpolicy relatedâ polls). Or maybe Musk actually will step back and open the door for someone else â hello, [Snoop Dogg](https://twitter.com/SnoopDogg/status/1604656918844256257?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet) and [Dionne Warwick](https://twitter.com/dionnewarwick/status/1605362816386338816?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw) â to take over at Twitter in 2023. Your guess is as good as mine.
## **Other polling bites**
- Would you consider yourself a poor gift wrapper? If so, your humility might put you in the minority, according to new December polling data from [YouGov](https://today.yougov.com/topics/politics/survey-results/daily/2022/12/19/afad9/2). Per their survey, 64 percent of U.S. adults said they considered themselves to be either âveryâ or âsomewhatâ good at gift wrapping. Nineteen percent of respondents said they were somewhat bad at gift-wrapping, while another 11 percent said they were *very* bad at it. Youâre also in the minority, per [YouGov](https://today.yougov.com/topics/politics/survey-results/daily/2022/12/19/afad9/3), if youâve never regifted a present to someone else. Only about one-third of adult respondents (31 percent) claimed that theyâve never done so, but most admitted to doing it: 29 percent said theyâve regifted once or twice, 18 percent said theyâve regifted âseveral timesâ and 13 percent of respondents have regifted âmany times.â
- The end of the calendar year has also led certain national pollsters â [Marist](https://maristpoll.marist.edu/polls/most-annoying-word-or-phrase/), specifically â to find out which word or phrase U.S. adults find most irritating. This yearâs winner/loser? âWoke.â [According to their survey](https://maristpoll.marist.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Marist-Poll_USA-NOS-and-Tables_Word_202212131025.pdf), about one-third of Americans (35 percent) agree that âwokeâ is the most annoying word used in conversation. Coming in second was the word âwhateverâ (22 percent), followed by âit is what it isâ (15 percent). But while attacking âwokeâ and âwokeismâ was initially the crusade-du-jour [by the GOP](https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/why-attacking-cancel-culture-and-woke-people-is-becoming-the-gops-new-political-strategy/), it appears that a number of survey respondents â regardless of party ID â found the term annoying. In fact, 31 percent of Democrats, 39 percent of Republicans and 38 percent of independent voters listed âwokeâ as the most bothersome word used in conversation. For context, 2021âs winners, [according to Marist](https://maristpoll.marist.edu/polls/marist-national-poll-most-annoying-word-december-2021/), were âTrumpâ and âcoronavirus.â
- With the 2022 midterm elections behind us, all eyes are now on the 2024 presidential race. And new polling data from [Morning Consult](https://morningconsult.com/2022/12/21/2023-lookahead-republicans-to-determine-trumps-role-in-party-future/) seemingly suggests that voters *might* be looking at another head-to-head matchup between Trump and President Biden (assuming the latter runs for reelection, [which looks increasingly likely](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/nov/10/joe-biden-2024-president-election)). On the Republican side, [Morning Consultâs tracking](https://morningconsult.com/2024-gop-primary-election-tracker/) among potential GOP primary voters1 gives Trump a wide lead (48 percent) over potential competitors like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, (33 percent) former Vice President Mike Pence (8 percent), Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (3 percent) and others. Pitted directly against DeSantis, however, Trump has a harder time breaking through. When potential GOP primary voters were asked who theyâd vote for in a primary election or caucus if it were held in their state today, 45 percent of respondents said DeSantis while 44 percent said Trump. Eleven percent said they didnât know or had no opinion.
- According to newly released survey data from [Gallup](https://news.gallup.com/poll/467303/americans-reported-mental-health-new-low-seek-help.aspx), Americansâ assessment of their own mental health is at an all-time low. Currently, just about 3-in-10 U.S. adults (31 percent) described their mental or emotional well-being as âexcellentâ â the lowest rating Gallup has recorded since it began asking respondents this question in 2001. The author notes, however, that part of the downward trend might be attributed to the COVID-19: Before then, Americansâ âexcellentâ ratings ranged in the 40s. Those numbers didnât begin to tick down until late 2020; that year, the percentage of adults who felt that their mental health was in âexcellentâ condition dropped to the 30s for the first time at 34 percent. The demographic groups *least* likely to say that their mental health and emotional well-being were âexcellentâ were people between the ages of 18 and 34 (20 percent), people who made less than \$40,000 annually (21 percent) and women (28 percent).
- In a calendar year that featured a major election and the rippling effects of a global pandemic, which headlines stuck out most to Americans? According to [Morning Consult](https://morningconsult.com/2022/12/19/seen-read-heard-2022-analysis/), this yearâs most salient news events, according to registered voters, were the Uvalde shooting (73 percent), the fall of Roe v. Wade (71 percent), Queen Elizabeth IIâs death (71 percent) and Hurricane Ian (70 percent). But there was a partisan gap in news salience, too. While Democrats (78 percent) and independent voters (72 percent) both listed the Uvalde shooting â [which left 21 people dead](https://www.cbsnews.com/live-updates/texas-school-shooting-victims-uvalde-robb-elementary/) â as the top news event that they saw, heard or read âa lotâ about, Republicans were more likely to put Hurricane Ian (70 percent) in the No. 1 slot. Among registered GOP voters, the Texas shooting ranked fourth (69 percent) after the hurricane, the fall of Roe (70 percent) and the queenâs death (70 percent).
## **Biden approval**

According to FiveThirtyEightâs [presidential approval tracker](https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/biden-approval-rating/),2 43 percent of Americans approve of the job Biden is doing as president, while 51.6 percent disapprove (a net approval rating of -8.6 points). At this time [last week](https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/americans-want-more-affordable-housing-just-not-nearby/), 43.0 percent approved and 51.3 percent disapproved (a net approval rating of -8.3 points). One month ago, Biden had an approval rating of 41.5 percent and a disapproval rating of 53.5 percent, for a net approval rating of -12.0 points.
## Footnotes
1. As of Dec. 20.
2. As of Thursday at 5 p.m. Eastern.
Alex Samuels was a politics reporter at FiveThirtyEight. [@AlexSamuelsx5](https://twitter.com/AlexSamuelsx5) |
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