WaPo (“Musk-Trump battle erupts anew over GOP spending bill“):
Elon Musk has renewed his assault on President Donald Trump’s signature budget bill, drawing new ire from the president and investors — and glee from some Democrats — with his threat to launch a new political party.
“If this insane spending bill passes, the America Party will be formed the next day,” Musk wrote Monday evening on X. “Our country needs an alternative to the Democrat-Republican uniparty so that the people actually have a VOICE.”
Trump fired back Tuesday in an early-morning barb on Truth Social as Senate Republicans wrangled over the bill overnight, taking aim at the federal subsidies Musk has received. Without them, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX would “probably have to close up shop and head back home to South Africa,” the president wrote, adding that cutting them would save the country a “FORTUNE.”
In an exchange with reporters on Tuesday morning, Trump was asked whether he would seek the deportation of Musk, who served his administration as the driving force of the Department of Government Efficiency.
“I don’t know,” he said. “We’ll have to take a look. We might have to put DOGE on Elon. … DOGE is the monster that might have to go back and eat Elon.”
In response to Trump’s comment, Musk wrote Tuesday morning that he would refrain from what he called the “tempting” urge to further escalate the back-and-forth.
NYT (“A Saber-Rattling Musk Promises a New Political Party if the G.O.P. Bill Passes“):
The country’s biggest Republican donor called on Monday for the formation of a new political party and suggested he would back primary challengers against nearly every single Republican in Congress.
That was the saber-rattling declaration of Elon Musk, should Republicans on Capitol Hill pass President Trump’s sweeping domestic policy bill.
While Mr. Musk’s words are often just that, he has dramatically escalated his anti-Republican rhetoric over the past few days. On Monday, he suggested that if the G.O.P. bill passed, he would swiftly form a new “America Party.”
“If this insane spending bill passes, the America Party will be formed the next day,” he wrote in one of several Monday posts to his 220 million followers on X. “Our country needs an alternative to the Democrat-Republican uniparty so that the people actually have a VOICE.”
By the evening, Mr. Musk was committing to specific action, saying that he would support Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky, among the most prominent holdouts against Mr. Trump’s bill. Though various G.O.P. factions have voiced concerns about the legislative package, potentially imperiling its passage, almost every Republican member in Congress supports some version of it.
At one point in the evening, Mr. Musk wrote that nearly the entire House and Senate G.O.P. “will lose their primary next year if it is the last thing I do on this Earth” — a tall task for even the world’s richest person, who donated nearly $300 million to Republican candidates in the 2024 election.
Mr. Musk went out of his way to call out two House Republicans who style themselves budget-cutters as leaders of the House Freedom Caucus: Representatives Andy Harris of Maryland and Chip Roy of Texas. He also squabbled with Senator Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma.
As Mr. Musk campaigned against the bill, Mr. Trump appeared to threaten the subsidies Mr. Musk’s companies, including SpaceX, receive from the federal government.
“Elon may get more subsidy than any human being in history, by far, and without subsidies, Elon would probably have to close up shop and head back home to South Africa,” Mr. Trump wrote on social media early Tuesday. “No more Rocket launches, Satellites, or Electric Car Production, and our Country would save a FORTUNE.”
“Perhaps we should have DOGE take a good, hard, look at this?” he added, referring to the Department of Government Efficiency, a group Mr. Musk formed.
Mr. Musk has had a tenuous, brief relationship with the Republican Party. A longtime Democrat, he began identifying with the G.O.P. only in 2022, and only began making heavy, public contributions to the party ahead of last November’s election. His extraordinary blowup with Mr. Trump in early June hastened his stated interest in the formation of a new party. He made a poll on X amid the feud asking: “Is it time to create a new political party in America that actually represents the 80% in the middle?”
Forming a viable third party would be a herculean task, and there were no immediate signs on Monday that Mr. Musk or his advisers were preparing to do anything concrete.
Only five weeks ago, the tech billionaire was singing a very different tune, saying he would spend “a lot less” on elections in the 2026 cycle.
CNN (“Elon Musk just made his starkest political threat since the election“):
After declaring he was stepping away from the political spotlight, Elon Musk got right back in it.
As the Senate debated President Donald Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill” on Monday before a final vote, Musk issued a stark warning via his social media platform X.
“Every member of Congress who campaigned on reducing government spending and then immediately voted for the biggest debt increase in history should hang their head in shame! And they will lose their primary next year if it is the last thing I do on this Earth,” he wrote.
A few hours later he went further, declaring on X that if the “insane spending bill passes, the America Party will be formed the next day.”
“Our country needs an alternative to the Democrat-Republican uniparty so that the people actually have a VOICE,” he wrote.
[…]
For weeks, Musk has railed against Trump’s policy bill, leading to a very public and ugly fight with Trump earlier this month. In a flurry of X posts several weeks ago, Musk had proposed starting a new political party.
That proposal resurfaced on Monday, when Musk said: “It is obvious with the insane spending of this bill, which increases the debt ceiling by a record FIVE TRILLION DOLLARS that we live in a one-party country – the PORKY PIG PARTY!! Time for a new political party that actually cares about the people.”
Musk’s resolution to support candidates who plan to launch primary campaigns against members of Congress is one of Musk’s most concrete political threats since leaving his post as a White House adviser. Musk spent more than $275 million to support Trump and other Republican candidates in the 2024 election. In late May he said in an interview he was planning to cut back on political spending, saying he has “done enough.”
According to Federal Election Commission filings, Musk’s political action committee, America PAC, last gave money in March to support two Republican candidates running in special elections in Florida – Randy Fine and Jimmy Patronis.
Musk has long supported closed borders, deportations and stopping illegal immigration, in line with the Trump administration.
But the domestic policy bill has appeared to trigger a rift between the Tesla CEO and the White House. Musk has argued that the Republican policy bill will increase the debt, calling it “debt slavery.”
It’s just insane that this level of immaturity has had this much power to steer the greatest superpower the world has ever seen.
For reasons we’ve discussed here many times, there is no realistic path to a viable third party without radical reforms to our governing institutions. Musk has the resources to fund such an enterprise, but there’s essentially no appetite for a third way in most states and congressional districts. All an America Party running on the platform Musk seems to advocate would achieve would be to take votes away from Republicans, pretty much assuring Democratic victories in places that aren’t deep red.
Musk’s pledge to fund primary opponents is more interesting. It’s basically the threat that President Trump has successfully leveraged to stifle resistance from the GOP ranks. Many who are going to vote for the BBB are doing so reluctantly, but see no path to retaining office and advancing their career ambitions if Trump turns against them. He’s the most powerful party leader in memory.
The whole thing is bizarre. It’s not at all clear how much of this is genuine ideological friction, personal pique, and narcissism. One suspects a combination of all three.
