GOP grapples with mounting frustration over DOGE cuts

Republicans are facing mounting voter frustration with Trump administration cuts made under tech billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). 

The anger has spilled out into public view in recent days as Republican lawmakers have been confronted over the cuts at raucous town halls. And multiple polls have suggested that, while voters are open to the broader idea of a federal downsizing, they’re concerned by the implementation of DOGE’s efforts.

Now Republicans are grappling with the political danger DOGE poses heading into the midterms — especially amid fears that many of the people impacted come from areas that voted for Trump.

“There’s gonna be real job losses that we’re not measuring yet, but we’re going to in the coming weeks and months,” Republican strategist Doug Heye said of the DOGE cuts. “And where that has an impact, especially in specific communities … that makes their life harder for the reliable voter, typically, for Trump. That kind of slow burn, I think, could have an impact.”

DOGE claims to have saved an estimated $115 billion so far through efforts ranging from grant cancellations to workforce reductions. Some of its moves, including the dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), have been challenged in court as Democrats sound alarms about overreach, Musk’s influence and the ripple effects of the changes. 

Tens of thousands of federal employees are estimated to have been fired or accepted what amounted to a buyout offer from the administration. Though roughly 20 percent of federal workers live in the D.C. area, the rest are spread out across the country, and cuts could sting voters in key congressional districts, including states that went to Trump last year. Outside of the DMV, federal workers have the most significant presence in California, Texas, Florida and Georgia, according to data from the nonprofit Our Public Service, the latter three of which all voted red in 2024. 

The White House and Musk have touted DOGE as a success, pointing to a February Harvard CAPS/Harris poll that found 72 percent of voters supported a government agency focused on efficiency, and 60 percent thought DOGE was “helping make major cuts.”

But while other polls have also found support for the idea of DOGE, there are signs of unhappiness with the speed and scope of the changes.  

NBC News polling this week found that 46 percent of voters thought creating DOGE was a good idea, though 47 percent now hold negative views of the commission’s work. Musk was also underwater, with just 39 percent positive views. 

A Fox News poll also found that 58 percent of voters disapprove of the job Musk is doing at DOGE, and 65 percent said they’re “extremely” or “very” concerned that “not enough thought and planning has gone into the government spending cuts.” A notable 39 percent of Republicans had concerns about how reductions are being implemented.

“Right now, based on who’s controlling the branches of government, what really matters is what is going on in Republican districts with Republican voters who have Republican lawmakers who are representing them,” said Dannagal Young, a professor of communication and political science at the University of Delaware. 

A poll from UD’s Center for Political Communication this month found that while a third of voters overall had a "lot" or "great deal" of trust in Trump, roughly a quarter felt the same aboutMusk and DOGE. Broken down by party, Republicans trusted all of those entities more than Democrats did, but a similar disconnect showed up: while 70 percent of Republican respondents had a significant amount of trust in Trump, just 53 felt that way about Musk and DOGE. 

“You would expect for that high amount of trust [for Trump] to translate to other folks that they think are aligned with the Trump agenda, but the trust in Musk, in DOGE, while still higher among Republicans, is not ginormous,” Young said. 

“I would love to be a fly on the wall to hear what it is that Republican lawmakers are saying internally about these pressures and what fears they may have about their own re-election prospects as a result.”

Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-Wyo.), a staunch Trump ally who unseated former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) in 2022, was booed at a town hall this week for defending DOGE’s work, and attendees at one point shouted “Deport Elon!” Trump won a whopping 72 percent of the vote in Wyoming last fall, and Hageman won reelection by a similar margin. 

Over in Nebraska, where Trump won by 60 percent last year, Rep. Mike Flood (R) was also hit with boos from a town hall audience when he voiced support for Musk and DOGE.

Rep. Celeste Maloy (R-Utah), meanwhile, drew applause at a Salt Lake City town hall when she voiced some light concern about White House spending cuts. 

“I think that the more that Republican lawmakers are hearing from angry constituents, and the more that they become aware that these angry constituents are, in fact, Republicans who maybe voted for them just a couple months ago, I think that there's going to be perhaps intra-party conversation about the extent to which Musk has been given the keys to the castle, and how their constituents don't love that,” Young said. 

Alaska’s at-large Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R), a frequent Trump critic, said this week that more of her fellow Senate Republicans won’t speak out against Musk and the Trump administration out of fear for their political lives. 

Republicans have largely shrugged off the town hall disruptions, blaming them on fringe protesters and Democrats or, as the president said, “paid ‘troublemakers.’” National Republican Congressional Committee Chair Richard Hudson (R-N.C.) expressed optimism that voters will “reward” the party for DOGE cuts eventually, though House Republicans have been advised to avoid in-person town halls after a handful of raucous events in recent weeks. 

But strategists nevertheless noted that there could be troubles ahead if the DOGE discontent doesn’t abate. 

“Angry Democrats right now showing up to yell at Republican legislators in the spring of 2025 is something to keep an eye on, but not yet cause to pull the fire alarm,” said GOP strategist and Trump campaign alum Brian Seitchik. “If Republican members of Congress have protesters outside their office in the summer of 2026, that is cause for concern.”

It’s too early to decide whether DOGE has been an overall success or failure for the administration, Seitchik added, but as 2026 races are already starting to heat up, Republican lawmakers have cause for concern about the current atmosphere.

“There is certainly a disconnect right now between the theory of DOGE, the cutting of fat in government … and what is seemingly a blowtorch as opposed to a scalpel approach to solving these problems,” Seitchik said. “Members of Congress understandably have to be worried about an election in less than two years. The president has four years to accomplish his mission and is taking a longer view.”

Together with signs of mounting frustration over Trump’s handling of the economy, the crackdown is “a huge political risk” for Republicans — and a big opportunity for Democrats, said Peter Loge, a political science professor at George Washington University and a senior FDA adviser during the Obama administration.

Though the left can’t run on an “I told you so” brand, Loge said, the discontent could provide the party with a means of making inroads ahead of the midterms.

"Democrats could say: the government isn't working for you, the government's working really well for Elon Musk, the government should be working for all of us," he said.

GOP strategist Alex Conant stressed that the midterms are still far off, and argued that some who oppose the DOGE cuts “haven’t necessarily heard about the benefits” given how early it is, as the changes are just getting kickstarted.

“What Republicans should be concerned about is Musk's effectiveness,” Conant said. “If DOGE actually breaks things that people care about and rely on, there's gonna be political costs to that.”