The billionaire entrepreneur (pictured above) has railed against the Big Beautiful Bill (BBB), Donald Trump’s agenda, which the President signed into law on July 4. The next day Musk announced his plan to create a new political party to challenge the Republican-Democrat status quo – dubbed "The America Party."
Various reports place Musk’s contributions to Trump’s 2024 campaign at just south of $300 million. He made important contributions to the exposure of Trump’s campaign as well.
Then there was Musk’s time as leader of the Department of Government Efficiency, where he infuriated Democrats by identifying government waste and calling for the removal of various programs, most notably leading to the dissolution of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
In May a Rasmussen poll showed 71% of Democrats favored imprisoning Musk.
But through the BBB, Musk alienated his new friends, the Republicans – and even the polite, often mild-mannered House Speaker Mike Johnson.
Musk, on his social media platform X, unfollowed Johnson on the weekend. Earlier he challenged Johnson as ignoring the national debt, re-posting Johnson comments from 2023 in which the future Speaker called the debt “not sustainable.”
Washington Stand editorial director Suzanne Bowdey discussed Musk's third-party idea on Washington Watch Monday.
“I don't think he knows what to do with all of his frustration now. I've watched you through years be frustrated with the Republican Party,” Bowdey told show host Tony Perkins. “I think he just doesn't know how to process [his frustration] so he's like 'Let's start a third party.' Well, you've been disgusted over the years. We've bantered about what do we do? But this is not a viable solution.”
So, who might follow Musk into a third party?
“There might be a tiny sliver of Republicans that would go for it, but even then Elon Musk … I’m just not sure where he finds a constituency … because if anything, I put him in any category to be libertarian,” Bowdey said.
There has been some positive reaction for The America Party, some of it from Mark Cuban, another billionaire entrepreneur. “I work with @voterchoice. They will help you get on ballots. That’s their mission,” he wrote on X.
Anthony Scaramucci, a former Trump White House communications director, wrote, “I would like to meet to discuss. My DMs are open.”
Andrew Yang, a former low-level Democratic presidential candidate said, “If it breaks the duopoly I’m all for it.”
Musk arrived in Washington, DC, with really no understanding of how government functions, Perkins explained, sharing private conversations with those who had been in direct contact with Musk. “That was obvious by some of the statements that he made,” Perkins said.
In addition, according to Bowdey, Musk hasn’t shown a necessary attention span to lead a viable third party.
“If he gets frustrated, who’s going to be running this party? If he's like, ‘Well, I'm going to go back to Tesla, and I'm going to go launch my rockets,’ who’s going to be in charge,” she asked.
Will a third party – again – hurt Republicans?
Trump responded to Musk’s announcement in a Truth Social post on Sunday, calling his former ally “off the rails.”
“He’s essentially becoming a TRAIN WRECK over the past five weeks,” Trump wrote. “The one thing Third Parties are good for is the creation of Complete and Total DISRUPTION AND CHAOS. They have never succeeded in the United States.”
It could be argued past third-party pushes – like Ross Perot’s Reform Party in 1996 – were successful in channeling votes away from Republicans.
Analysts say any potential America Party candidates could again steal votes from the GOP, especially from disenchanted conservatives, and end up flipping key House or Senate seats in the 2026 midterms.
“Government was designed by our founders to be slow and hard to change,” Perkins said. “Because of years of neglect it’s gotten way out of whack. We have to do the hard work of bringing it back, but I think we have to work within the structure.”
