Elon Musk has asked if it is “time to create a new political party in America” amid his messy public feud with President Donald Trump.
Why It Matters
Musk left his role with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) last week, but didn’t take long to turn against the president and criticize the “One Big Beautiful Bill” that the House of Representatives passed last month.
The Tesla CEO and former Trump ally called the bill “outrageous” and “pork-filled,” attacking the Republicans who voted for it.
“I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore,” Musk wrote on X earlier this week. “This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination. Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it.”
What To Know
Musk escalated his feud with the administration on Thursday by posting a poll that posed the question, “Is it time to create a new political party in America that actually represents the 80% in the middle?”
More than 400,000 people have already responded, with 83.4 percent in favor of creating a third, middle party.
Other high-profile figures have discussed the potential for a third party in U.S. politics, with many seeing it as a non-viable option: The Tea Party started out as a galvanizing force that the Republican party absorbed, and Independent Senator Bernie Sanders twice ran to be the Democratic candidate because he saw it as the only path to the presidency.
Former Trump aide Anthony Scaramucci, in an interview with Newsweek in December, even speculated on potential fallout from Trump’s victory in the 2024 U.S. presidential election that would include a third party, but added, “It can’t happen. It won’t happen.”
Allison Robbert/AFP via Getty Images
“You can’t have a third-party United States, Ross Perot killed that,” Scaramucci said. “Ross Perot ran for president, got 19.9 percent of the vote, scared the daylights out of those two parties. They went on lockdown. They got together, shook hands, gave the pinkie to each other.”
Trump has shot back at Musk’s criticism, claiming both during a press gaggle in the Oval Office and in a post on Truth Social that Musk’s opposition to the bill comes from, instead, the removal of an electric vehicle mandate “that forced everyone to buy Electric Cars that nobody else wanted.”
Trump on Thursday also escalated the matter by threatening in a Truth Social post: “The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts. I was always surprised that Biden didn’t do it!”
What People Are Saying
President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social: “Elon was ‘wearing thin,’ I asked him to leave, I took away his EV Mandate that forced everyone to buy Electric Cars that nobody else wanted (that he knew for months I was going to do!), and he just went CRAZY!”
Elon Musk wrote on X: “Keep the EV/solar incentives cuts in the bill, also cut all the crazy spending increases in the Big Ugly Bill so that America doesn’t go bankrupt!”
What Happens Next
Trump and Musk continue to escalate their dispute, posting further revelations on X and Truth Social as they continue trading verbal haymakers.
Update 6/5/25, 3:33 p.m. ET: This article has been updated with additional information, context, and content.
