A new Daily Mail and J.L. Partners poll released on Thursday showed that First Lady Melania Trump and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. lead the pack with the highest favorability ratings in the Trump administration.
Melania Trump had a 45% very or somewhat favorable rating in the poll, while only 32% had a very or somewhat unfavorable rating. That's a +13 in the poll.
A few points behind her was Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who had similar favorable ratings of 45% combined, but had higher unfavorable ratings of 39% for a +6 rating.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt both had +3 ratings in the poll, but all the other officials and administration members included had negative numbers, including the president himself.
Vice President J.D. Vance had -1 and Trump had -5 in the survey of 1006 registered voters--both were underwater in their ratings.
Even further underwater were Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth at -9 and DOGE head Elon Musk with -15. Musk will soon be mostly leaving the administration to devote himself to Tesla and other projects, but will still work with Trump one to two days a week.
The only figure with a lower rating than Musk in the poll was Russian President Vladimir Putin, who had a -59.
DOGE has been a controversial addition to the government in that it has seemed to cut government spending with a machete rather than a scalpel.
Thousands of federal employees have been laid off or offered early retirement, and most everyone knows of something they don't think should have been cut.
There is also resentment at Musk and Trump, both billionaires, cutting funding for some of the most needy in society, like Medicare, drug treatment, and mental health treatment grants and funding.
Cutting the wasteful and unnecessary spending in the government was at first popular with voters, but the extent of the cuts or temporary budget freezes has alarmed many.
DOGE claimed that it cut $160 billion from the annual budget in its first 100 days, but almost $100 billion of that is not itemized on the DOGE website, so it's hard to say what the real figures are.
Musk originally pledged to cut $2 trillion from the annual budget, but that has not materialized as planned.
Still, any cuts are better than the automatic and exponential increases we have gotten from the last few administrations, including Trump's first term.
