By: Seanna Adcox SC Daily Gazette
Over half of all South Carolinians with any opinion approve of the way President Donald Trump is doing his job, but Elon Musk is overall not well liked, according to a Winthrop Poll released Tuesday.
However, their approval ratings in the Palmetto State are bipolar when broken down by party.
Among respondents who gave an opinion in the online poll, 53% approve of Trump’s presidency so far, while only 38% have a very or somewhat favorable view of Musk.
Trump’s approval rating shoots up to 81% among self-identified Republicans. But self-identified Democrats gave the reverse answer: 81% of them disapprove of Trump.
(Voters don’t register by party in South Carolina, and the poll was not limited to likely voters.)
“Republicans and Democrats are deeply divided over President Trump’s performance, but his approval is riding high among his base,” said Scott Huffmon, a Winthrop University political science professor and the poll’s director.
As for Musk and his cost-slashing efforts as head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), he’s less liked than Trump even among Republicans, with 67% of them viewing him favorably. Among Democrats, 79% view Musk unfavorably.
Asked how much influence they want Musk to have within Trump’s administration, more than two-thirds of Republicans answered “a lot” or “a little.” That compares to nearly three-quarters of Democrats who said “none at all.”
“The ways in which Musk has influenced the Trump administration has pleased South Carolina’s Republicans and seems to deeply concern S.C. Democrats,” Huffmon said. “We have no way of predicting how the impact of DOGE will solidify or change these numbers as it continues to drastically affect the shape and functions of the executive branch.”
More South Carolinians were in agreement on immigration.
Three-fourths of South Carolinians said they support “deporting immigrants who are in the country illegally.” Support shoots up to 90% among Republicans, while 61% of Democrats are supportive.
However, South Carolinians don’t agree on deporting immigrants who “came to the U.S. illegally as children.” Among all respondents, 55% somewhat or strongly oppose that. Broken down by party, 67% of Republicans support that idea, while 79% of Democrats oppose.
In November, Trump won South Carolina with more than 58% of 2.55 million votes cast, nearly 18 percentage points over Democrat Kamala Harris.
The latest Winthrop Poll was conducted online between Feb. 5 and March 5 from a sampling of South Carolina adults; 1,220 people responded.
Results were weighted to align to South Carolina’s demographics for sex, race and age based on census data. They have a margin of error of plus or minus 2.8 percentage points among all respondents. The margin of error rises to plus-or-minus 8 points for answers by party.
