It started, as most of Elon Musk’s moves do, with a post on X. On July 5, the Tesla CEO and former adviser to US President Donald Trump announced the formation of the America Party, a new political movement meant to upend what he called “a one-party system, not a democracy.”
Why start a party? The two men have been feuding over the president’s “One Big Beautiful Bill,” which became law July 4. Musk slammed the package – which pairs tax cuts with massive spending hikes for defense and immigration enforcement – for adding trillions to the US debt. He now plans to defeat legislators who supported it, vowing that “They will lose their primary next year if it is the last thing I do on this Earth.”
Will voters bite? Musk posted a poll on X on July 4 – American Independence Day – asking whether voters wanted “independence” from the American two-party system: 65% of 1.2 million respondents answered “Yes.” A subsequent Quantus Insights poll found that 40% of voters are open to supporting his America Party, though just 14% are “very likely” to vote for it, with skepticism highest among Democrats and older voters.
Have third parties ever made a difference? Alternatives to the Republican-Democrat duopoly have periodically emerged. And while a third-party candidate has never won the White House, they’ve helped other candidates to do so. In 1912, Theodore Roosevelt’s breakaway Progressive Party won 27% of the popular vote, dividing the Republican base and handing the presidency to Democrat Woodrow Wilson. In 1992, billionaire Ross Perot’s independent candidacy captured nearly 19% of the vote and helped Democrat Bill Clinton defeat incumbent Republican President George H. W. Bush. In 2000, Ralph Nader’s campaign under the Green Party banner swung the election to George W. Bush by drawing Florida votes away from Democrat Al Gore. Most recently, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ran as an independent in 2024 but dropped out to endorse Trump, later becoming his secretary of Health and Human Services. On Capitol Hill, meanwhile, no significant third party has ever emerged.
President or power broker? Musk isn’t aiming for the presidency himself (as a foreign-born American he isn’t eligible anyway). Rather, he says he wants to target two or three Senate seats and eight to ten House races to act as a swing bloc in a polarized Congress. He promises to champion fiscal discipline, deregulation, and centrism, positioning him as a potential spoiler for Trump in the 2026 midterms. But Musk’s personal brand is polarizing: a Morning Consult poll from late June showed his overall net favorability at -14, and an Economist-YouGov poll found that Musk’s net favorability dropped from -9 to -23 after his feud with Trump.
Can Musk really pull this off? Despite Musk’s deep pockets, money might not be enough: in April, his $20-million political push in Wisconsin failed to sway a key judicial race. Logistical barriers might prove even tougher. Starting a nationally-competitive third party requires navigating a maze of state-level signature thresholds and party-registration deadlines, as well as building campaign infrastructure and volunteer networks – his disruptive intentions aside, does Musk really have that level of patience for politics?
And what if Trump acts against him? Last week he threatened to strip him of citizenship, and Sunday night called his third-party effort “off the rails.” With stakes this high, this next chapter in the clash between the world’s richest man and the president could have huge implications.