After weeks of speculating about starting a political party in the wake of his explosive split with President Trump, Elon Musk finally announced the beginning of his new venture on Saturday. However, he has been vague about the specifics of how he intends to go about doing so.
For weeks, the billionaire businessman and former Republican megadonor has openly considered launching a new political party to upset the status quo. Just months ago, he appeared as the president’s aide in the Oval Office after contributing millions to his campaign.
On Saturday, Musk seemed to solidify his plan to form his “America Party,” following a poll he posted to his X account the previous day asking his followers if they thought he should start the party.
Your desire for a new political party will be granted at a rate of 2:1! We are not a democracy, but rather a one-party system when it comes to the waste and corruption that has bankrupted our nation,” he wrote. “Restore your freedom with the formation of the America Party today.”
The president and his former adviser had a huge falling out last month over the “big beautiful bill,” which the former head of DOGE has criticized as being wasteful; following this, Musk’s third-party musings started in earnest.
Musk tried to rally support for his possible third party launch on Thursday, while Trump boasted about the Republican megabill’s passage through Congress. He said his party will focus on a few vulnerable swing districts to gain influence.
“Considering the extremely narrow margins in the legislature, that would be sufficient to determine the fate of controversial laws, guaranteeing that they reflect the genuine desire of the people,” he stated.
Despite Musk’s stated intention to use his millions to support Rep. Thomas Massie’s (R-Ky.) reelection campaign in the face of Trump’s targeting, forming a third party is fraught with difficulty due to the need to comply with numerous state laws, regulations governing ballot access, and other legal hurdles.
The wealthy would-be party founder has been mum on details of how to move forward at this point. Two months prior, Musk had declared his intention to reduce his political expenditure, claiming he had “done enough.”