US president railed against his former adviser online after tech billionaire said he will start and bankroll America party<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Donald Trump<\/a> called Elon Musk<\/a>\u2019s decision to start and bankroll a new US political party \u201cridiculous\u201d on Sunday. \u201cThird parties have never worked, so he can have fun with it but I think it\u2019s ridiculous,\u201d the president told reporters traveling with him back to the White House from his New Jersey golf club.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He then elaborated, at great length, in a post<\/a> on his social media platform, Truth Social. \u201cI am saddened to watch Elon Musk go completely \u2018off the rails,\u2019 essentially becoming a TRAIN WRECK over the past five weeks,\u201d the president wrote. \u201cHe even wants to start a Third Political Party, despite the fact that they have never succeeded in the United States\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe one thing Third Parties are good for is the creation of Complete and Total DISRUPTION & CHAOS,\u201d Trump added. He then went on to claim that Musk was motivated by discontent over his plan to end subsidies to promote the purchase of electric vehicles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trump also accused Musk of seeking improper influence by asking the president to nominate his friend, Jared Isaacman, to be Nasa administrator. After Musk left his role as a special government employee in the Trump administration<\/a>, Isaacman\u2019s nomination was withdrawn. \u201cI also thought it inappropriate that a very close friend of Elon, who was in the Space Business, run NASA, when NASA is such a big part of Elon\u2019s corporate life,\u201d Trump wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Earlier on Sunday, Trump\u2019s treasury secretary said\u2002Musk<\/a> should focus on running his companies and keep himself out of politics, a day after the world\u2019s richest person \u2013 and a former White House adviser \u2013 announced the formation of a new political party<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe principles of Doge were very popular \u2013 I think if you looked at the polling Elon was not,\u201d Scott Bessent said on CNN\u2019s State of the Union, referring to the so-called \u201cdepartment of government efficiency\u201d that Musk temporarily headed<\/a> after Trump\u2019s second presidency began in January.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Opinion polls found Doge and Musk\u2019s work implementing brutal spending and job cuts within the federal government to be deeply unpopular<\/a>. And Bessent alluded to how investors in Musk\u2019s companies \u2013 including the electrical vehicle maker Tesla, whose sales<\/a> have suffered<\/a> during Doge\u2019s existence \u2013 publicly pleaded for his time with the Trump administration to be short-lived.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSo I believe that the boards of directors at his various companies wanted him to come back and run those companies,\u201d Bessent remarked. \u201cI imagine that those boards of directors did not like this announcement yesterday, and will be encouraging him to focus on his business activities, not his political activities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bessent\u2019s reaction came after Musk delivered on his promise to form a new party, and accused his one-time ally Trump of \u201cbankrupting<\/a>\u201d the country by signing his massive tax and spending bill into law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The tech billionaire announced<\/a> the creation of the America party in a series of posts late on Saturday and early Sunday to X, the social media platform he owns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen it comes to bankrupting our country with waste & graft, we live in a one-party system, not a democracy,\u201d he wrote<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cToday, the America Party is formed to give you back your freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Musk, who was appointed to slash federal spending through the unofficial Doge from January through May, has been a vocal<\/a> critic<\/a> of Trump\u2019s \u201cbig, beautiful bill\u201d that the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office said would increase the national deficit<\/a> by $3.3tn (\u00a32.85tn) through 2034.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It provides substantial tax cuts for the super wealthy while slashing federal safety net welfare<\/a> programs, with up to 10.6 million people losing healthcare insurance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The pair have feuded over its cost and impacts since Musk left the government<\/a> in May, and on Friday, when Trump signed<\/a> the bill into law in a Fourth of July picnic at the White House, the Tesla and SpaceX chief opened a poll on X<\/a>: \u201cthe perfect time to ask if you want independence from the two-party (some would say uniparty) system\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Respondents voted two to one in the affirmative, Musk announced late on Saturday. He gave few details about the structure of his new venture or a timeline for its creation. But his earlier posts suggested it would focus on two or three Senate seats, and eight to 10 House districts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Both chambers of Congress are narrowly controlled by Republicans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cGiven 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,\u201d Musk said<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bessent was one Trump ally to quickly take a swipe at Musk\u2019s move.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Musk\u2019s series of posts to X, which continued into the early hours of Sunday, also appeared to indicate that his on-again, off-again relationship with Trump was firmly back in negative territory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When the pair fell out earlier in the summer, Musk lashed out during an astonishing social media duel<\/a> in which he stated Trump\u2019s name was in the files relating to associates of the late pedophile and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Musk later deleted the post and apologized to the president<\/a> as they embarked on an uneasy truce. On Sunday, however, Musk returned to the subject, reposting a photo of the jailed Epstein facilitator Ghislaine Maxwell that questioned why she was the only person in prison while men who engaged in sex with underage girls \u2013 a crime colloquially known in the US as statutory rape \u2013 were not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In other posts he said it would be \u201cnot hard\u201d to break the two-party stranglehold in US politics<\/a> enjoyed by Democrats and Republicans. And he questioned \u201cwhen & where should we hold the inaugural American Party congress? This will be super fun!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trump has made clear his feelings about his former friend in recent days after criticism of the bill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In response to Musk\u2019s posts calling the bill \u201cinsane\u201d, Trump said he might \u201clook into\u201d deporting<\/a> the South African-born, naturalized US citizen billionaire. The president also mused about slashing subsidies to his companies, especially SpaceX, which holds billions of dollars in government contracts<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cDoge is the monster that might have to go back and eat Elon. Wouldn\u2019t that be terrible?\u201d Trump asked reporters on Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is no requirement for new political parties in the US to register with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) initially, but reporting regulations kick in<\/a> once spending surpasses what the FEC calls \u201ccertain thresholds\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Musk is estimated to have spent more than $275m of his personal fortune helping to get Trump elected to a second term in the White House in last November\u2019s presidential election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n