The Branches Of The Tree

Tara Palmeri:

As promised, I want to share the ins and outs of my reporting process with you, so I first reached out to Trump’s personal pollster John McLaughlin after I learned about the meltdown over Musk’s interview to ask if he’s been polling Musk’s response in the interview. And I was shocked to learn that McLaughlin has not polled Musk at all, even though he’s clearly a political liability to the President. McLaughlin has been polling Trump for decades and was one of the main pollsters alongside Tony Fabrizio on the campaign. He said the last poll that he conducted that even remotely touched on Musk was about DOGE in November 2024 and it did not mention Musk by name. “No one has asked us to do that poll,” McLaughlin told me. Well, the public polling shows that the numbers for Musk – what some would call Trump’s heat shield – have been in free fall since Trump took office, with more than 53 percent of people having an unfavorable opinion of Musk, according to a new CNN poll. But surely Trump’s political operation, which to be fair is an impressive one, would want to know if Musk was starting to become a liability. No political consultant in Washington trusts public polling. They’d probably trust the opposition party’s polling over public polling. So that leaves me to believe that they are afraid of Trump’s appendage or it’s because Musk just donated $100 million to Trump’s political arm, which just so happens to be run by Trump’s other pollster Fabrizio. When I asked Fabrizio if he’s conducting polls on Musk favorables, he didn’t get back to me.

Regardless, I’ve heard that the White House is aware that Musk’s numbers are “dog shit,” according to a source.

As ew asked:

I continue to believe something fundamental is being missed abt the Musk-Trump relationship.

And then read details like this, from @tarapalmeri.bsky.social. As if polling Elon's unpopularity would give insiders tools to oppose him?

Even the most casual observer can tell that Trump doesn’t give a shit about details; and governance is all about details. Elmo’s whole schtick is about sweating the details (he doesn’t, but he sells that image). Trump keeps Elmo around as his hatchet man who he thinks is handling the details of shrinking the government (it isn’t really about “cutting spending” or “balancing the budget.” Get real.). At least he can tell himself that. Mostly all he cares about is somebody wielding the hatchet so he doesn’t have to. That work is boring! Elmo allows Trump to embarrass the nation with foreign dignitaries or talk to reporters he wants in the Oval, or just plays golf (must be getting hot 🥵 in Florida already).

And Trump really doesn’t give a shit if Elmo is pissing off the staff. Trump likes chaos around him. He thinks it keeps the workers from organizing to put the shiv in his back. And as long as he’s the cause of the chaos, he’s in control.

Elmo is useful to Trump, and the moment he isn’t, Trump drops him like he found a turd in his hand. Until then, the polls don’t mean shit.