It was only a matter of time before billionaire and big personality Elon Musk and our ebullient president Donald Trump clashed. For the former head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), the tipping point was the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), which the House passed and President Trump signed last week. As Musk correctly stated back in May, “I think a bill can be big or it can be beautiful, but I don’t know if it can be both.”
While some speculated that Musk’s ire had to do with OBBBA’s getting rid of EV incentives, Musk himself said this in June about his motivations: “Keep the EV/solar incentive cuts in the bill, even though no oil & gas subsidies are touched (very unfair!!), but ditch the MOUNTAIN of DISGUSTING PORK in the bill. In the entire history of civilization, there has never been legislation that both big and beautiful. Everyone knows this!”
Put another way: Our government spends the American people’s money like there is no tomorrow.
The Big Beautiful Bill quickly swallowed up all the work and cuts that Musk made as the head of DOGE. Standing by and watching politicians spend American tax dollars like drunken sailors is not Musk’s style. He even threatened to primary Republican lawmakers who voted for OBBBA. On Friday, July 4, Musk put out a poll asking if there was any interest in a third party that would prioritize getting our national debt under control.
The poll garnered 1.2 million votes, with 64.5% saying yes, they want a third-party option. Musk took this as a victory and on Saturday afternoon wrote, “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.”
As far as names go, “America Party” is much better than Kanye West’s “Birthday Party.”
There are a couple of problems with Musk’s scheme, though. First, there is no way to make a social media poll sample only Americans, so there were likely plenty of foreign voices chiming in that should have no say. Second, Musk’s proposal has been tried before multiple times throughout our history (see Ross Perot and Ralph Nader as recent examples). What usually ends up happening is that these third parties blaze bright initially, siphon enough votes to spoil a major party candidate, and then either fizzle out or get folded into one of the two main parties.
One important clarification to Musk’s third-party scheme is that he isn’t aiming for a presidential bid. Musk is aiming lower at Senate, House, and gubernatorial seats.
For his part, Trump was not happy with this further evidence of strife between Musk and himself. The president posted on Truth Social:
I am saddened to watch Elon Musk go completely “off the rails,” essentially becoming a TRAIN WRECK over the past five weeks. He even wants to start a Third Political Party, despite the fact that they have never succeeded in the United States — The System seems not designed for them. The one thing Third Parties are good for is the creation of Complete and Total DISRUPTION & CHAOS, and we have enough of that with the Radical Left Democrats, who have lost their confidence and their minds! Republicans, on the other hand, are a smooth running “machine,” that just passed the biggest Bill of its kind in the History of our Country. It is a Great Bill but, unfortunately for Elon, it eliminates the ridiculous Electric Vehicle (EV) Mandate, which would have forced everyone to buy an Electric Car in a short period of time.
One thing is certain: Congress is no longer capable of passing smaller, slimmer bills. Lawmakers are only willing to pass omnibus-type bills that are packed with pork.
With OBBBA, there are certainly upsides, like making President Trump’s 2017 tax cuts permanent. There is also reason to believe that the accompanying pork may not inflict permanent damage. This president is not shy about impounding money earmarked for executive branch waste — though, as it currently stands, he hasn’t yet figured out a way to do it constitutionally. Perhaps he has something up his sleeve to impound the waste and pork in OBBBA.
In the meantime, Musk and his third-party ambitions need more time at the drawing board.
