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Why Elon Musk is calling for the formation of a new political party in the US

Why are Trump and Musk fighting again, and why has the US President said DOGE should look at the subsidies Musk's companies get?

Elon Musk during a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, April 10. (Eric Lee/The New York Times)

The country’s biggest Republican donor called 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 Donald Trump’s sweeping domestic policy bill.

Although 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 GOP 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 the social platform X. “Our country needs an alternative to the Democrat-Republican uniparty so that the people actually have a VOICE.”

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By evening, Musk was committing to specific action, saying that he would support Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., among the most prominent holdouts against Trump’s bill. Although various GOP 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, Musk wrote that nearly the entire House and Senate GOP “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.

Musk went out of his way to call out two House Republicans who style themselves budget-cutters as leaders of the House Freedom Caucus: Reps. Andy Harris of Maryland and Chip Roy of Texas. He also squabbled with Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla.

As Musk campaigned against the bill, Trump appeared to threaten the subsidies Musk’s companies, including SpaceX, receive from the federal government.

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“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,” 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 Musk formed.

Musk has had a tenuous, brief relationship with the Republican Party. A longtime Democrat, he began identifying with the GOP only in 2022, and only began making heavy, public contributions to the party before November’s election. His extraordinary blowup with 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 Monday that Musk or his advisers were preparing to do anything concrete.

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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.