US President Donald Trump on Sunday slammed former ally Elon Musk's launching of a new political party as “ridiculous,” after the tech billionaire said he wanted to challenge the country’s “one-party system.”
“I think it's ridiculous to start a third party,” Trump told reporters before he boarded Air Force One on his way back to Washington 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,” he said.
Trump added, “So he can have fun with it, but I think it's ridiculous.”
Musk, the world's richest man, spent some $270 million underwriting Trump's 2024 re-election effort and, for a time, regularly showed up at the president's side in the White House Oval Office and elsewhere.
Musk spearheaded the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), aimed at cutting government spending, before he pulled back his involvement in late May, saying he would now be allocating far more time to his electric vehicle company Tesla, which reported a huge drop in profit and sales worldwide since the tech tycoon made a brief venture into Trump's inner circle.
Shortly after his pull back from DOGE, the two men were exchanging bitter insults on social media after Musk criticized Trump's flagship spending bill.
As the bill made its way through Congress, Musk had threatened to form the “America Party” if “this insane spending bill passes.”
That bill passed the Senate by a narrow margin midday Tuesday.
In response, Musk carried out his threat and announced that he is establishing the “America Party.”
