On Friday, Musk took to his social media platform X to once again
float the possibility of a third party to rival the two major ones — the
Democrats and the Republicans — in United States politics.
“Independence Day is the perfect time to ask if you want independence
from the two-party (some would say uniparty) system! Should we create
the America Party?” Musk asked his followers, attaching an interactive
poll.
Musk has maintained that both major parties have fallen out of step
with what he describes as the “80 percent in the middle” – a number he
estimates represents the moderates and independents who do not align
with either end of the political spectrum.
His desire to form a new party, however, emerged after a public
fallout with Trump over the “One Big Beautiful Bill”, a sweeping piece
of legislation that passed both chambers of Congress on Thursday.
Yet again on Friday, Musk revisited his objections to the bill,
albeit indirectly. He shared Senator Rand Paul’s critique that the bill
“explodes the deficit in the near-term”, responding with a re-post and
the “100” emoji, signifying his full agreement.
The “One Big Beautiful Bill” has long been a policy priority for
Trump, even before he returned to office for a second term on January
20.
His aim was to pass a single piece of legislation that included
several key pillars from his agenda, allowing him to proceed with his
goals without having to seek multiple approvals from Congress.
But the “One Big Beautiful Bill” has been controversial among
Democrats and even some Republicans. The bill would make permanent the
2017 tax cuts from Trump’s first term, which critics argue
disproportionately benefit the wealthy over middle- to low-income
workers.
It also raises the debt ceiling by $5 trillion and is projected to
add $3.3 trillion to the country’s deficit, according to a nonpartisan
analysis from the Congressional Budget Office.
Further funding is earmarked to bolster Trump’s campaign to crack
down on immigration into the US. But to pay for the tax cuts and the
spending, the bill includes cuts to critical social services, including
Medicaid, a government health insurance programme for low-income
households, and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP),
also known as food stamps.
Fiscal conservatives opposed the debt increase, while several other
Republicans worried about how Medicaid restrictions would affect their
constituents.
But in recent weeks, Trump and other Republican leaders rallied many
of the holdouts, allowing the bill to pass both chambers of Congress by
narrow margins.
Senator Paul of Kentucky was one of only three Republicans in the
Senate to vote “no” on the bill. In the aftermath of its final passage
on Thursday, he wrote on social media: “This is Washington’s MO:
short-term politicking over long-term sustainability.”
Trump is slated to sign the bill into law in a White House ceremony on Friday.
The debate over the bill, however, proved to be a tipping point for
Trump and Musk’s relationship. In late May, during his final days as a
“special government adviser”, Musk appeared
on the TV programme CBS Sunday Morning and said he was “disappointed”
in the legislation, citing the proposed increase to the budget deficit.
“I think a bill can be big or it can be beautiful,” Musk told a CBS journalist.
By May 30, his time in the Trump administration had come to an end, though the two men appeared to part on cordial terms.
But after leaving his government role, Musk escalated his attacks on the “One Big Beautiful Bill”, warning it would be disastrous for the US economy.
“I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore. This massive,
outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting
abomination,” Musk wrote on June 3.
Musk went so far as to suggest Trump should be impeached and that he
had information about the president’s relationship with sex offender
Jeffrey Epstein, though he did not offer evidence. Those posts have
since been deleted.
Trump, meanwhile, accused Musk on social media of going “CRAZY” and
seeking to lash out because the bill would peel back government
incentives for the production of electric vehicles (EVs).
On June 5, Musk began to muse about launching his own political
party. “Is it time to create a new political party in America that
actually represents the 80% in the middle?” he wrote.
In follow-up posts, he noted that his followers appeared to agree
with him, and he endorsed a commenter’s suggestion for the party’s
potential name.
“‘America Party’ has a nice ring to it. The party that actually represents America!” Musk said.
As the world’s richest man and the owner of companies like the
carmaker Tesla and the rocket manufacturer SpaceX, Musk has billions of
dollars at his disposal: The Bloomberg Billionaires Index estimates his
net worth at $361bn as of Friday.
But experts warn that third parties have historically struggled to
compete in the US’s largely two-party system, and that they can even
weaken movements they profess to back, by draining votes away from more
viable candidates.
Musk’s estimate about the “80 percent in the middle” might also be an
overstatement. Polls vary as to how many people identify as independent
or centrists.
But in January, the research firm Gallup found that an average of 43
percent of American adults identified as independent, matching a record
set in 2014. Gallup’s statistics also found a decline in the number of
American adults saying they were “moderate”, with 34 percent embracing
the label in 2024.
Still, on Friday, Musk shared his thoughts about how a potential
third party could gain sway in the largely bifurcated US political
sphere. He said he planned to take advantage of the weak majorities the
major parties are able to obtain in Congress.
“One way to execute on this would be to laser-focus on just 2 or 3 Senate seats and 8 to 10 House districts,” he wrote.
“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.”
![Hundreds of Eritreans demonstrate in front of the African Union headquarters in support of the UN Inquiry report and asking for measures to be taken against Eritrea on June 26, 2015 in Addis Ababa. [File: Nichole Sobecki/AFP]](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/000_Par8211441-1751650670.jpg?resize=770%2C513&quality=80)
