Tech billionaire Elon Musk announced Saturday night that he is officially launching a new political party, which he has named the “America Party,” following a high-profile rift with President Donald Trump over the recently passed One Big, Beautiful Bill.
Musk has increasingly accused both major parties of being complicit in reckless government spending, using the term “uniparty” to criticize what he sees as bipartisan failure to rein in the federal budget.
“By a factor of 2 to 1, you want a new political party and you shall have it!” Musk wrote on X, citing a poll he posted Friday. “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.”
According to Musk, the party will advocate for “responsible spending only,” free speech protections, reduced federal regulation, and modernization of the U.S. military.
On Friday, Musk floated a strategy to maximize the party’s influence: zeroing in on a handful of closely contested congressional races. “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.”
Musk’s break with Trump began last month, when he openly criticized the president’s support for the One Big, Beautiful Bill. The feud escalated when Musk suggested Trump was hiding ties to Jeffrey Epstein — a comment Musk later walked back, saying he had gone “too far.”
The tension flared again last week when Trump suggested Musk might find himself under scrutiny from the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a Trump administration agency tasked with rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse in federal spending.
“DOGE is the monster that might have to go back and eat Elon,” Trump told reporters.
The announcement comes at a time when Trump is consolidating political power. Within days, he secured passage of his signature spending bill, ended taxes on tips and overtime, and scored a historic diplomatic breakthrough with Iran and Israel. On Independence Day, as Trump signed the bill into law, a fleet of B-2 bombers flew over Washington in a show of American strength and unity.
Whether Musk’s third-party effort gains meaningful traction remains to be seen. The last time a third-party candidate won the presidency was Abraham Lincoln in 1860 — but that was also the last time the political establishment was this fractured.
While Musk says he wants to “give Americans their freedom back,” critics argue that splitting the right-of-center vote could ultimately help Democrats regain ground — a concern that may test just how far Musk’s political ambitions really go.