Elon Musk breaks silence on 'big beautiful Bill', hints at America Party

“Independence Day is the perfect time to ask if you want independence from the two-party (some would say uni-party) system! Should we create the America Party? One way to execute this would be to laser-focus on just 2 or 3 Senate seats and 8 to 10 House districts. Given the razor-thin legislative margins, that would be enough to serve as the deciding vote on contentious laws, ensuring that they serve the true will of the people,” Elon Musk posted on the social media platform he owns on 4 July.

He also posted a poll on X asking people if a new political party should be formed. While the poll will continue to record votes for/against over 24 hours, in the first two hours, 62.3 per cent of the 2.18 lakh responders said ‘yes’ to his question: 'Should we create the America Party?' He prefaced the question with the statement, “Independence Day is the perfect time to ask if you want independence from the two-party (some would say uni-party) system!”

US President Donald Trump had not taken kindly to Musk's threat to float a new political party and the tech billionaire's public criticism of Trump's 865-page spending Bill. Elon, he had fumed, 'should not play that game with me', and threatened to cut off all subsidies to companies owned by Musk. “We will save a fortune,” he had said before adding that if the federal subsidies were stopped, Musk would have to go back to South Africa. Asked by reporters if he would deport Musk, the US president replied that he might.

Musk, who had vowed to ensure that US Congressmen and women who vote for the Bill do not ever get elected again, had massively bankrolled Trump’s own campaign for the presidency. He not only invested millions of dollars in Trump’s election fund, but also helped out by connecting Trump with other tech billionaires and was a ubiquitous presence at Trump’s election rallies.

Once Trump was elected, Musk served as a ‘special federal employee’ and headed DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency), ostensibly set up to weed out waste and fraud from the government. 

Musk continued to be almost a permanent fixture at the White House until May, when he dropped out of the administration after barely three months in the government. Musk with his young son in tow would be seen travelling with Trump to his weekend retreats and both seemed inseparable.

When Musk finally parted ways with the White House, the reason cited was the urgency to devote more attention to his own businesses and companies like Tesla, the electric vehicle manufacturer, and StarX, which is into commercial space shuttles, and Starlink, providing satellite internet connectivity in remote areas.

However, it soon became clear that his differences with the US president had become bitter; so much so that Trump recently told reporters that Musk was on drugs and admitted that he had passed on the information to the New York Times.

Musk has enough wealth and clout to bankroll election campaigns of 20-odd people for the Senate and the House of Representatives. Judging by his posts, he appears confident to be able to ensure the victory of two-three senators out of 100 in the Senate and 10-12 members of the House of Representatives with a strength of 432 members. That, he believes, will be enough for the group to play a decisive role in the passage of any legislation.

It does appear realistic, though he is certain to face considerable opposition from the establishment if he does go ahead with the plan. For the time being, he is being more circumspect and discreet and wisely refraining from attracting too much attention to himself. He is also trying to mend fences with the US president, crediting Trump for resolving several serious international conflicts. ‘Credit where credit is due,’ he had posted.