Billionaire Elon Musk forms new party in the US
Tech billionaire Elon Musk announced the formation of a new party to compete with the Democrats and Republicans, called the America Party.
"You wanted a new political party and you got it. Today, the America Party was formed to set you free," Elon Musk announced on social network X on July 5.
The tech billionaire cited the results of an X poll he conducted a day earlier, asking respondents whether they wanted “independence from the two-party system” that has governed American politics for the past two centuries. The survey received more than 1.2 million responses.
In a post announcing the formation of the party, Musk said two-thirds of survey participants supported the formation of the new party.
It's unclear how Elon Musk's new party will impact the 2026 midterm elections and the 2028 presidential election.
Musk, the world's richest person, is Donald Trump's biggest political donor in the 2024 campaign. Musk has led efforts to cut federal spending and manpower as head of the Office of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Musk also disagreed with Mr Trump on the spending plan known as the "Big, Beautiful Act" and vowed to do everything possible to defeat the lawmakers who voted for it.
Musk criticized both Democrats and Republicans for the huge government deficits they have caused under their rule. He said he wants to build a fiscally conservative party with tight control over spending, but gave few other details about the party's platform.
Musk cannot run for president under the US constitution because he was born in South Africa, but his founding of a new party could cause the Republican Party to lose many voters.
Musk outlined a possible political plan on July 4 to win vulnerable House and Senate seats and become the “swing vote” on major legislation. “One way to do that is to focus on two or three Senate seats and eight to 10 House seats,” the billionaire said.
All 435 seats in the House of Representatives are up for election every two years, while about a third of the 100 seats in the Senate, which serve six-year terms, are up for election every two years.
Some point to how third-party campaigns have historically split the vote, such as businessman Ross Perot's run for president as an independent in 1992, which contributed to George H.W. Bush's re-election bid failing, leading to the victory of Democrat Bill Clinton.
"Musk is just following the path of Ross Perot. I don't like this at all," one person commented on X.