Former “First Buddy” Elon Musk’s plan to wade back into politics with a new political party has roiled MAGA influencers across X.
Musk officially filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission Sunday to establish his so-called “America Party” after he pledged to hit back against Republicans for passing President Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill,” which is projected to add $4.5 trillion to the national debt.
Tesla Chief Financial Officer Vaibhav Taneja—who CFO Dive reported has offloaded millions in company stock—is listed as the party’s custodian of records and the treasurer on the FEC form.
Musk, who became an American citizen in 2002, claimed in a Friday post on X that his new political party would focus “on just 2 or 3 Senate seats and 8 to 10 House districts,” CNBC reported.
“By a factor of 2 to 1, you want a new political party and you shall have it!” Musk added in a Saturday post on X, referring to an X poll he conducted asking his followers if they would support a third party. “Today, the America Party is formed to give you back your freedom.”
Yet many MAGA figureheads across the billionaire’s social media platform don’t share his enthusiasm.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent took a shot at Musk’s new party in an interview with CNN Sunday, noting that while the “principles of DOGE were very popular,” the Tesla CEO “was not.”
“I believe that the boards of directors at his various companies wanted him to come back and run those companies,” Bessent said. “So, I imagine that those board of directors did not like this announcement yesterday and will be encouraging him to focus on his business activities, not his political activities.”
Others worry the new party will only tip the political scales in favor of the Democrats.
“Elon launching the ‘America Party; Will make it easier for Dems to win in the future!” wrote conservative Dear America founder Graham Allen. “@elonmusk this is a mistake……please listen to reason!”
“I used to think Elon was awesome. But he’s become evil. Or maybe he always was evil. It’s all just his ego,” wrote Ben Hart, who said he is “waging war on wokeness” in a since-deleted tweet.
In another tweet, Hart added, “Elon has decided to destroy America because he doesn’t understand how our political system works. I agree with Elon that the BBB spends too much. But we need 60 votes in the Senate and more than a 7 seat margin in the House to do what he wants to do.”
Musk previously ripped Trump’s budget bill as “utterly insane and destructive,” suggesting it would be “political suicide for the Republican Party.”
Not only will the bill “destroy millions of jobs in America and cause immense strategic harm to our country,” he wrote, “It gives handouts to industries of the past while severely damaging industries of the future.”
In a swipe back at his former BFF, Trump suggested that his administration would continue distancing itself from Musk by reviewing the millions of dollars in contracts Musk has with the federal government that support Tesla and SpaceX, Reuters reported.
“He’s upset that he’s losing his EV mandate and … he’s very upset about things but he can lose a lot more than that,” Trump told reporters at the White House on July 1.
