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Telegraph
36 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Musk is about to unleash more havoc on America
In the 2004 comedy Team America, a group of freelancing Thunderbird-style puppets romp around the world, saving mankind from a coalition of terrorists and liberal Hollywood actors. It was hard not to bring the film to mind last night when Elon Musk announced a new 'America Party'. That was my first thought. My second was: thank God Rupert Lowe doesn't have $400 billion. It is, as my mother often says, 'very easy to mock'. Nonetheless, although such a party would be unlikely to win a future election – if it did, it would be the first time in history that a third-party candidate became president – it could unleash even more chaos upon the American political system and even more volatility upon the world. That could be the whole point. The announcement of the America Party was the latest escalation in a war of words between the two most powerful men on Earth over Donald Trump's signature megabill. As the legislation made its way through the Senate, Musk became furiously opposed to it. 'Every member of Congress who campaigned on reducing government spending and then immediately voted for the biggest debt increase in history should hang their heads in shame!,' he posted on X on Monday. 'And they will lose their primary next year if it is the last thing I do on this Earth.' Not to be outdone, Trump fired back on his own social media site, Truth Social. 'No more Rocket launches, Satellites, or Electric Car Production, and our Country would save a FORTUNE,' he wrote. 'Perhaps we should have DOGE take a good, hard, look at this? BIG MONEY TO BE SAVED!!!' The bill was signed into law on July 4. Then came the announcement of the America Party. We mock at our peril. As the richest man on Earth, Musk's net worth is the equivalent of the GDP of mid-ranking countries like the Netherlands, Switzerland and Saudi Arabia. To put that in context, the 2024 presidential election was the second most expensive since 1998, behind only the 2020 race, which was the most costly on record. Donald Trump's latest victory cost about half-a-billion dollars in candidate committee cash, and about a billion in outside money. Musk could comfortably drop three or four times that sum on the America Party without his eyes watering. He could also fund a private army the size of Britain's Armed Forces (annual budget: £57 billion) to go with it, should his ambitions take a more Team America turn. With a political megaforce like this unleashed upon the United States, unpredictable numbers of votes would be hijacked both from the Democrats and Republicans. We would witness a three-way rhetorical battle, with Donald Trump's legendary bile haemorrhaging in all directions and the whole catastrophe given rocket boosters – almost literally – by social media. But there are big caveats. Although Musk's post on X seemed unequivocal – 'By a factor of 2 to 1, you want a new political party and you shall have it! Today, the America Party is formed to give you back your freedom,' he wrote – no paperwork has been filed to the Federal Election Commission for the formation of a political entity by that name. Given the impulsiveness that social media encourages and the volatile characters of the two big beasts, it is quite possible that by this time next week, Musk will have abandoned his political ambitions and once again be a card-carrying member of Team Trump. On the other hand, it is just as likely that the feud may have gone interstellar. All of this is terrible for America. In the final analysis, this latest bombastic move is a gesture of spite by a man with a gold-plated god complex and a social media platform. But it is more than a fight between two Thunderbird-style caricatures competing for the attention of America. The tragedy of the episode is that Musk's poll on X revealed that a majority of users felt that no political party was speaking for them. That is a real problem, and it is one that Musk's America Party would never solve. Whether it becomes a reality or not, it is hard to avoid one conclusion. The United States deserves better than this.
The Guardian
38 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Elon Musk's ‘America' party could focus on a few pivotal congressional seats
The new US political party that Elon Musk has boasted about bankrolling could initially focus on a handful of attainable House and Senate seats while striving to be the decisive vote on major issues amid the thin margins in Congress. Tesla and SpaceX's multibillionaire CEO mused about that approach on Friday in a post on X, the social media platform he owns, as he continued feuding with Donald Trump over the spending bill that the president has signed into law. On Saturday, without immediately elaborating, the former Trump adviser announced on X that he had created the so-called America party. 'One way to execute on this would be to laser-focus on just 2 or 3 Senate seats and 8 to 10 House districts,' wrote Musk, who is the world's richest person and oversaw brutal cuts to the federal government after Trump's second presidency began in January. 'Given the razor-thin legislative margins, that would be enough to serve as the deciding vote on contentious laws, ensuring they serve the true will of the people.' Musk did not specify any seats he may be eyeing. In another post on Friday, when the US celebrated the 249th anniversary of its declaration of independence from the UK, Musk published a poll asking his X followers whether he should advance on his previously stated idea of creating the America party to contend against both Republicans and Democrats. More than 65% of about 1.25m responses indicated 'yes' as of Saturday morning. 'Independence Day is the perfect time to ask if you want independence from the two-party (some would say uniparty) system!' Musk also wrote in text accompanying the poll, which he promoted several times throughout Friday. Musk on Saturday then posted on X: 'Today, the America party is formed to give you back your freedom.' He also wrote: 'By a factor of 2 to 1, you want a new political party, and you shall have it! When it comes to bankrupting our country with waste & graft, we live in a one-party system, not a democracy.' One of the replies to Musk's announcement that he reposted showed a picture of a two-headed snake near the word 'uniparty' as well as the logos of the Democratic and Republican parties. 'End the Uniparty,' the reply said. Musk in turn responded to the reply with: 'Yes.' He also suggested the party would run during the 2026 midterms. New political parties do not have to formally register with the Federal Election Commission 'until they raise or spend money over certain thresholds in connection with a federal election'. Musk's posts on Friday and Saturday came after he spent $277m of his fortune supporting Trump's victorious 2024 presidential campaign. The Republican president rewarded Musk by appointing him to lead the unofficial 'department of government efficiency', or Doge, which abruptly and chaotically slashed various government jobs and programs while claiming it saved $190bn. But Doge's actions may also have cost taxpayers $135bn, according to an analysis by the Partnership for Public Service, a nonpartisan non-profit dedicated to studying the federal workforce. Musk left Doge at the end of May and more recently became incensed at Trump's support for a budget bill that would increase the US debt by $3.3tn. He threatened to financially support primary challenges against every member of Congress who supported Trump's spending bill – along with promising to 'form the America Party' if it passed. The House voted 218 to 214 in favor of the spending bill, with just two Republicans joining every Democrat in the chamber in unsuccessfully opposing it. In the Senate, JD Vance broke a 50-50 deadlock in favor of the bill, which Trump signed on Friday hours after Musk posted his America party-related poll. The Trump spending bill's voting breakdown illustrated how narrowly the winning side in Congress carries some of the most controversial matters. Trump has warned Musk – a native of South Africa and naturalized US citizen since 2002 – that directly opposing his agenda would be personally costly. The president, who has pursued mass deportations of immigrants recently, publicly discussed deporting Musk from the US as well as cutting government contracts for some of his companies. 'Without subsidies, Elon would probably have to close up shop and head to South Africa,' Trump posted on his own social media platform, Truth Social. The president also told a group of reporters in Florida: 'We might have to put Doge on Elon. Doge is the monster that might have to go back and eat Elon. Wouldn't that be terrible.'
BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
US deports eight men to South Sudan after legal battle
The US has deported eight people to South Sudan following a legal battle that saw them diverted to Djibouti for several men - convicted of crimes including murder, sexual assault and robbery - had either completed or were near the end of their prison sentences. Only one of the eight is from South Sudan. The rest are nationals of Myanmar, Cuba, Vietnam, Laos and Mexico. US officials said most of their home countries had refused to accept Trump administration is working to expand its deportations to third countries. It has deported people to El Salvador and Costa Rica. Rwanda has confirmed discussions and Benin, Angola, Equatorial Guinea, Eswatini and Moldova have been named in media reports as potential McLaughlin from the department of homeland security called the South Sudan deportation a victory over "activist judges". A photo provided by homeland security to CBS News, the BBC's US partner, showed the men shackled by both hands and feet on the did not say whether the South Sudanese government had detained them or what their fate would be. The country remains unstable and is on the brink of civil war, with the US State Department warning against travel because of "crime, kidnapping and armed conflict".The eight had initially been flown out of the US in May, but their plane was diverted to Djibouti after US district judge Brian Murphy in Massachusetts blocked the deportation. He had ruled that migrants being deported to third countries must be given notice and a chance to speak with an asylum last week, the Supreme Court sided with the Trump administration and overturned Murphy's ruling. On Thursday, the Supreme Court confirmed that Murphy could no longer require due process hearings, allowing the deportations to then asked another judge to intervene but he ultimately ruled that only Judge Murphy had jurisdiction. Judge Murphy then said he had no authority to stop the removals due to the Supreme Court's "binding" this year, secretary of state Marco Rubio revoked all visas for South Sudanese passport holders, citing the country's past refusal to accept deported nationals.
