By Jack Phillips
Contributing Writer
Tesla CEO and former White House adviser Elon Musk on Saturday announced that he would create a new political party following a split with President Donald Trump over the One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed by Congress last week.
Musk, who became a vocal Trump ally in the closing weeks of the 2024 presidential election and led the task force known as the Department of Government Efficiency, broke with the Republican president over his signature legislation, which was signed into law by Trump on July 4.
What Musk Has Said
“When it comes to bankrupting our country with waste and graft, we live in a one-party system, not a democracy,” Musk wrote on Saturday on X, the social media company he owns. “Today, the America Party is formed to give you back your freedom.”
The formation of new political parties is a common occurrence, but they generally struggle to pull any significant support away from the Republican and Democratic parties, which have dominated U.S. politics for more than 160 years.
After Musk’s announcement, which did not include any criticism of Trump himself, the Tesla CEO has been repeatedly reposting comments supporting Musk or his attempt to create a third party. Based on his public statements, it’s not clear what Musk would do with the party. Because he was not born in the United States, Musk is not able to run for president.
In early June, Musk engaged in an escalating public feud with Trump over the Big Beautiful Bill. Trump warned Musk that he could pull federal subsidies for his companies, while Musk suggested he would decommission the SpaceX Dragon rocket system that is used to transport NASA astronauts to the International Space Station. He later said he wouldn’t do so.
After several days of back and forth between the two, Musk and Trump reconciled, with Musk expressing regret for some of his posts targeting the president. Trump also said he appreciated Musk’s comment in a New York Post interview but also said that he believes Musk is actually upset with the bill because it terminates federal subsidies for electric vehicles, which Tesla relies upon.
Musk then took a roughly three-week hiatus from commenting on U.S. politics on social media before he again criticized the Big Beautiful Bill as it reached the Senate. Again, Trump signaled that the federal government via DOGE could look into federal subsidies that Musk’s companies were granted.
“It is obvious with the insane spending of this bill, which increases the debt ceiling by a record FIVE TRILLION DOLLARS that we live in a one-party country — the PORKY PIG PARTY!” Musk wrote on June 30 as the Senate considered the measure.
Musk has repeatedly said that he believes the bill would lead to a significant increase to the U.S. national debt.
White House Responds
Trump broke his silence on Sunday with a post on Truth Social, suggesting the new political party is the latest example of how Musk has gone “completely ‘off the rails.’”
Trump also affirmed that a third political party has never succeeded in the United States.
“The system seems not designed for them,” he said. “The one thing third parties are good for is the creation of complete and total DISRUPTION & CHAOS, and we have enough of that with the radical left Democrats, who have lost their confidence and their minds!”
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also signaled that Musk would not gain much support and that he may face pressure from his own companies to stay away from politics.
“The principles of DOGE were very popular. I think, if you look at the polling, Elon was not,” Bessent told CNN. “I believe that the boards of directors at his various companies wanted him to come back and run those companies, which he is better at than anyone. So, I imagine those boards of directors did not like his announcement yesterday and will be encouraging him to focus on his business activities, not his political activities.”
Last week, White House adviser Stephen Miller appeared to respond to Musk’s comments about forming another party, saying that the Libertarian Party has garnered little support in recent presidential elections.
“The libertarian delusion is that there is a large political constituency for their ideology. It does not exist,” the White House deputy chief of staff for policy wrote in a post on X. “Libertarians have never performed nationally above a number rounding to zero. And when libertarians run for president within the GOP, they are the first ones out.”
Multiple FEC Filings
As of Sunday morning, there were multiple political parties listed in the Federal Election Commission database that had been formed in the hours since Musk’s Saturday X post with versions of “America Party” or “DOGE” or “X” in the name, or with Musk listed among people affiliated with the entity.
But many of the filings appeared to be inauthentic.
An FEC filing that was shared frequently on X on Saturday listed Tesla CFO Vaibhav Taneja as the party’s treasurer, included a 1-800 phone number that was directed to Tesla’s investor relations portal, and included the SpaceX headquarters address in California.
Several of the FEC filings included an acronym listed for the America Party, but Musk wrote in a separate post on X on Saturday that “no acronyms” would be used.
Musk has not publicly commented on the FEC filings.
Musk’s Plan
The Tesla CEO wrote on X that the America Party would go after several seats in Congress, with the goal of keeping either Democrats or Republicans from gaining a majority in Congress.
“One way to execute on this would be to laser-focus on just two or three Senate seats and eight to 10 House districts. Given the razor-thin legislative margins, that would be enough to serve as the deciding vote on contentious laws, ensuring that they serve the true will of the people,” he wrote in a post on July 4.
He also stated: “The way we’re going to crack the uniparty system is by using a variant of how Epaminondas shattered the myth of Spartan invincibility at Leuctra: Extremely concentrated force at a precise location on the battlefield.”
While Musk has not specifically laid out a party platform, based on his very recent public comments, Musk’s party would likely focus on slashing the national debt.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
