--- title: "Elon Musk Trying to Figure Out Who’s to Blame for His Massive Unpopularity" description: "After fleeing DC to go watch yet another SpaceX rocket blow up in Texas, Elon Musk is now whining about how everyone hates him." date: "2025-06-01" modified: "2025-06-01" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/elon-musk-ponders-unpopularity" categories: - "Elon Musk" - "Future Society" - "The Industrialists" tags: - "doge" - "elon musk" - "politics" - "tesla" --- # Elon Musk Trying to Figure Out Who’s to Blame for His Massive Unpopularity ![After fleeing DC to go watch yet another SpaceX rocket blow up in Texas, Elon Musk is now whining about how everyone hates him.]() *\Image: Andrew Harnik / Getty / Futurism\* As his time in DC disintegrated this week, [Musk intimated to the *Washington Post*]() that he was very surprised by what he saw in American government — but not as surprised as he was by everyone's reaction. "The federal bureaucracy situation is much worse than I realized," the billionaire told the newspaper. "I thought there were problems, but it sure is an uphill battle trying to improve things in DC, to say the least." That "uphill battle" apparently included getting people on board with his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), the cost-cutting agency that Musk was seemingly gifted in exchange for his help getting Donald Trump elected. While the [boy-brained billionaire]() wasn't exactly popular before his debut in American politics, he and his agency have become downright detested in 2025. From its [iffy mandate]() and its enormous [failure to reach its savings goals]() to its massive [professional]() and [competence breaches](), DOGE has been a major dud — and [Musk's companies]() are bearing the brunt. But ask Musk, and he has no idea why everybody is so mad. As he told it to *WaPo*, the agency mysteriously became the "whipping boy for everything." "Something bad would happen anywhere," Musk said, "and we would get blamed for it even if we had nothing to do with it." Despite his [attempts at a breezy reboot this week](), it's clear the uber-wealthy memelord is aware that the public hates him and his politics — but the alleged "[free speech absolutist]()" can't seem to figure out why people would want to take their righteous anger out on his company's cars. "People were burning Teslas," he lamented. "Why would you do that? That’s really uncool." This isn't the first time Musk has searched around dumbfounded, like a confused John Travolta in "[Pulp Fiction]()," looking for the reason people are [taking their anger out Teslas](). In March, the world's sometimes-richest man took to the social network he purchased to claim that an "[investigation]()" had found five individuals, along with a liberal-leaning fundraising platform, were behind the widespread protests against his electric vehicle company. He didn't acknowledge, of course, the crux of those protests: that [even Republicans]() and [former fanboys]() consider the mass firing of civil servants toxic, and that his own poor approval ratings were [bringing down Trump's](). Despite his unceremonious exit from government, DOGE's work will go on in Musk's stead, and the agency will soon be "tackling projects with the highest gain for the pain, which still means a lot of good things in terms of reducing waste and fraud." Today in Washington, as in South Texas, it's business as usual as the White House [prepares to send a new slew of DOGE cuts]() to Congress in a spending bill and [SpaceX launches more than two dozen Starlink satellites]() aboard a Falcon 9 rocket. Life in DC has gone on after Musk has left the building — [not with a bang](), but with a whimper. **More on Musk:** [*You Can Suddenly Sense Elon Musk's Desperation*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()