Elon Musk said a new political party he has been threatening to start up “is formed,” a day after President Donald Trump signed a tax-cut and spending bill that the Tesla Inc. billionaire chief executive officer has denounced.
Musk made the announcement on his X social network after posting the results of a poll on the platform that he said showed 65 per cent of respondents in favour of creating an America Party.
“You want a new political party and you shall have it!” he said Saturday. “Today, the America Party is formed to give you back your freedom.”
Musk, the world’s richest man, didn’t provide details. He floated the idea as Congress prepared to pass Trump’s budget package, which will end of a popular $7,500 consumer tax credit for electric vehicle purchases this year.
That followed Musk’s exit from the administration in an incendiary spat with Trump that ended his role heading the Department of Government Efficiency drive to cut federal spending.
Weeks after the public blow-up with Trump, Musk began to ramp up criticism of the tax and spending bill through a series of posts on X after the Senate version speeded up the end of EV tax credits.
He took aim at Congress members who supported the bill, threatening to launch a new political party and vowing to boost his political spending to unseat lawmakers who voted for the bill during the next round of US elections.
“If this insane spending bill passes, the America Party will be formed the next day,” Musk said on X at the time. He also criticized the package for giving “handouts to industries of the past while severely damaging industries of the future” and for raising the federal debt ceiling by $5 trillion.
