United States President Donald Trump has slammed former ally Elon Musk’s launching of a new political party as “ridiculous”, deepening the Republican’s feud with the man who was once his biggest backer.
The world’s richest man was almost inseparable from Trump as he headed the cost-cutting Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), but they fell out hard over the president’s “big beautiful” tax and spending mega-bill.
“I think it’s ridiculous to start a third party,” Trump told reporters on Sunday before he boarded Air Force One on his way back to Washington, DC from his New Jersey golf club.
“It’s always been a two-party system, and I think starting a third party just adds to confusion. Third parties have never worked. So he can have fun with it, but I think it’s ridiculous,” he said.
South African-born Musk announced on Saturday that he would found the America Party to challenge what he called the “one-party system” in the US.
SpaceX and Tesla tycoon Musk says the president’s massive domestic spending plan would explode the US debt, and has promised to do everything in his power to defeat lawmakers who voted for it.
The former DOGE head, who led a huge drive to slash federal spending and cut jobs, equated Trump’s Republicans with rival Democrats when it came to domestic spending.
“When it comes to bankrupting our country with waste & graft, we live in a one-party system, not a democracy,” Musk posted on X, the social media platform he owns.
Musk gave few details of his plan, and it was not clear whether he had registered the party with US electoral authorities, but it could cause Republicans headaches in the 2026 midterm elections and beyond.
