Weeks after Elon Musk had a major falling-out with Donald Trump, the genesis of this rupture between the former DOGE chief and the president of the United States remains unclear. It might have been rooted in something as specific as a rebuffed recommendation for NASA administrator or something as general as an inevitable clash between two of the world’s largest egos. But its flash point was definitely Musk’s June decision to start trashing the president’s One Big Beautiful Bill as a “disgusting abomination.” It wasn’t lost on anyone that Musk nearly caused a government shutdown last December after a similar eruption on social media. So the shouting match over Trump’s treasured megabill escalated rapidly into very public insults and threats.
After a few days, perhaps realizing he was risking a lot of federal-government contracts, Musk backed down and even apologized for going too far. But as the Senate considered the megabill, Musk blew up again, calling it “incredibly destructive,” “utterly insane,” and “political suicide for the Republican Party.” Trump brushed it all off as sour grapes, and Senate Republicans ignored Musk’s advice.
You would think this experience, along with Musk’s earlier failures and frustrations at DOGE, would have soured him on politics for good, particularly given the attention he really needs to devote to his companies. But from this litany of abuse toward the One Big Beautiful Bill, a new political idea was born:
Earlier, Musk had briefly raised the idea of a “new political party in America that actually represents the 80% in the middle,” a formulation that shows how much thought he had put into it (none). He quickly moved back to the more conventional idea of sponsoring primary challenges to the Republican infidels backing the Big Beautiful Bill. But now, he sounds more serious about a third party:
As it happens, there are already some alternatives out there to the “uniparty,” and the overpowering aroma of Musk’s wealth has definitely caught their attention. The first third-party leader to offer to spend Musk’s money was the former Democratic maverick Andrew Yang, as Politico reported in early June:
Andrew Yang has reached out to Elon Musk with a sales pitch: Let’s build a third party together.
The former 2020 Democratic presidential candidate has been pushing his independent Forward Party for several years — and he sprang into action after Musk’s feud with President Donald Trump erupted and Musk polled X users on whether they wanted a new political party.
In an interview with POLITICO Magazine, Yang said he hasn’t heard back from Musk yet, but he’s optimistic. Yang also acknowledged he doesn’t agree with Musk about everything, but said that his Forward Party should appeal to those across the political spectrum. And don’t forget that Musk had endorsed Yang’s previous presidential bid.
The vaguely centrist Yang struggled to identify much of anything he and Musk have recently agreed upon, and it’s not as if his Forward Party is exactly striking fear into the hearts of Democrats or Republicans. But now a more plausible suitor for Musk’s bankroll has popped up, and again Politico has the story:
Libertarian National Committee Chair Steven Nekhaila has a pitch for billionaire Elon Musk: Join us, and don’t fight the uphill battle of launching a third party.
“Making a new third party would be a mistake,” Nekhaila told Score on Tuesday. “The Libertarian Party is the most set-up party to be the dissident subversive party.”
Nekhaila has clearly noticed Musk’s proclivity for Libertarian-ish Republicans like Thomas Massie and Rand Paul and the savage hatred of government Musk displayed at DOGE. More generally, fantasies of a government-free society dominated by the wealth and technology of superior beings like themselves are a pretty common feature of the Tech Bro milieu that is Musk’s home turf. And there’s no question the Libertarians are sufficiently far from the political mainstream that the two major parties look alike from that great distance. But whatever Libertarians could do for Musk is dwarfed by what Musk could do for them:
Musk’s money would go a long way in advancing Libertarians. The national organization operates with a yearly budget of between $1 million and $3 million, Nekhaila said. Musk alone funneled more than $250 million into the 2024 election (mostly through his America PAC) to help catapult Trump to the presidency in November.
“Once the capital is there, the doors get blown wide open,” Nekhaila said.
Before you know it, Libertarians could rise from their 2024 presidential performance of 0.42 percent to, I don’t know, one percent? Two percent?
Maybe Musk would be better off taking his cranky views out of U.S. politics and going back to his plan to conquer Mars and populate it with his offspring.
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