The feud between President Donald Trump and his former billionaire backer took a new twist over the recent holiday weekend when Musk announced his latest creation. It’s not a rocket, a robot or an electric camper. It’s a political party – a third choice he says Americans desperately crave.
So, on July 5 Musk announced the creation of The America Party.
“By a factor of 2 to 1, you want a new political party, and you shall have it! When it comes to bankrupting our country with waste & graft, we live in a one-party system, not a democracy. Today, the America Party is formed to give you back your freedom,” Musk wrote on X, the social media platform he owns.
The day prior, Independence Day, Musk posted a poll on X with the question, “Should we create the America Party?” The post generated 93.9 million views but only 1.3 million votes with 65.4% answering yes, 34.6% saying no.
History of little success
It doesn’t take many keystrokes to determine the bleak history of third parties in America. There have been flashes but little sustained success.
Voters often fear “wasting” a vote with a party or candidate they view as having little chance to win. Ballot access laws vary by state and can be difficult to unwind. Often third-party candidates find it difficult to gain a spot on a debate stage with their traditional party counterparts. The Library of Congress website with “third parties in U.S. history” can be a good source of information.
In short, third-party success is a long shot.
“Pretty much everything through history proves this to be exactly correct,” Blaze Media host and columnist Auron MacIntyre said on American Family Radio Friday.
America’s third-party history is not lost on Musk, a native South African. It’s likely initial goals for The America Party will be to focus on House and Senate races and try to be impactful in Congress where control can turn quickly depending on small margins held by the leading party whether Republican or Democrat.
Republicans currently hold the House and the Senate but with margins so small that little gets done without drama, as shown recently by the passage of Trump’s agenda in the Big Beautiful Bill, so heavily criticized by Musk.
Many figured this out a long time ago
It’s a tough needle to thread, MacIntyre told show host Jenna Ellis.
“You can go back and read John C. Calhoun [vice president under John Quincy Adams] talking about how our system will always produce two parties, and only two parties who will vie for control of the country. The last time we saw a big party switch in the United States where we actually had a viable third and then fourth party was when Abraham Lincoln ran – and then we had the Civil War,” he noted.
He used today’s Libertarian Party as an example. Technically, it’s the third-largest political party in the U.S., but it has little to show for it.
The Libertarians are on the ballot in dozens of states – North Dakota, Alabama, Wyoming, Kansas, Pennsylvania and Louisiana to name a few. In some states there’s partial access, meaning a candidate can receive “write-in” votes. The party is struggling to gain a foothold in New York, Georgia, Iowa and Maryland.
“Look at the Libertarian Party, who thought they were teed up multiple times with disastrous candidate slates from the Republicans and Democrats in the last few elections and barely made any kind of dent,” MacIntyre said.
The rise of a third party has tended to hurt Republicans more than Democrats in modern times as they often draw from right-leaning ideologies, such as the Libertarians promoting civil liberties and limiting the size and scope of government.
In the 1992 presidential election, Ross Perot won 19% of the vote. Most analysts agree he hurt George W. Bush more than Bill Clinton, allowing Clinton to win with just 43%.
The exception to the pattern may be Ralph Nader of the Green Party in 2000. Some argue he was the reason Democrat Al Gore didn’t win Florida and, therefore, the White House.
What’s driving Musk?
So, is the motivation for Musk, the Tesla CEO, simply to stick it to Trump for arguing against EV mandates in the Big Beautiful Bill or to Republicans for what he deems wasteful spending?
“It's a very strange maneuver because Elon has never been against government spending until like 10 minutes ago. This is a guy who built a large amount of his business model on receiving government contracts and carve-outs and subsidies. This is a guy who has advocated for universal basic income,” MacIntyre said. [Editor's note: Universal Basic Income is listed as one of the "Key Pillars" of The America Party.]
Most positive social media feedback for Musk has come from fiscal conservatives. But as MacIntyre points out, the bottom line is Musk – in Musk-like fashion – appears to be flying solo in the decision-making process.
“Elon Musk actually recently sat down with Curtis Yarvin, one of my favorite political theorists of the modern world. Apparently, he tried to get his advice on this and immediately unfollowed him on Twitter [X] afterwards, because I imagine Curtis told him that a third party is the saddest clown in the entire circus. I just don't think he's going to run into anybody who will give him an honest answer who's going to tell him this is a good idea,” MacIntyre said.
