Elon Musk, a former ally of US President Donald Trump, announced on Saturday that he had created a new political party in the United States to challenge the country’s “one-party system”.
Musk, the world’s richest person and Trump’s largest political donor in the 2024 election, had a strained relationship with the president after leading the Republican campaign to cut spending and federal jobs as director of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency.
“When it comes to bankrupting our country with waste & graft, we live in a one-party system, not a democracy,” the SpaceX and Tesla boss posted on X.
“Today, the America Party is formed to give you back your freedom.” Musk added.
Musk highlighted a poll published on X on Friday, US Independence Day, in which he questioned respondents if they “want independence from the two-party (some would say uniparty) system” that has dominated US politics for over two centuries.
The yes-or-no survey received almost 1.2 million replies.
“By a factor of 2 to 1, you want a new political party, and you shall have it!” he wrote on Saturday.
The Trump-Musk conflict erupted in dramatic fashion late last month when Trump pressed Republicans in Congress to pass his big domestic agenda in the shape of the One Big Beautiful Bill.
The world richest man was vehemently opposed to the proposal and viciously lambasted its Republican supporters for promoting “debt slavery”.
He swiftly pledged to form a new political party to oppose senators who campaigned on decreased federal spending yet voted for the package, which experts believe will add $3.4 trillion to the US deficit over the next decade.
After Musk harshly criticised the centrepiece spending bill, which eventually passed Congress and was signed into law, Trump threatened to deport Musk and cut off federal funding to his companies.
“We’ll have to take a look,” the president told reporters when asked if he would consider deporting Musk, who was born in South Africa and has held US citizenship since 2002.
