The America Party is right out of the 'Musk playbook'
It reflects a pattern in Musk's career of founding or buying entities to solve what he views as a big-picture problem.
He founded SpaceX, Neuralink, and the Boring Company to focus on singular issues.
If Elon Musk ever had to write a cover letter, he might say that he's the kind of leader who identifies an important problem and launches into action to find a solution — regardless of the odds.
He wouldn't be lying. It's one of his primary traits as a business leader.
Musk has a long history of founding and leading companies designed to tackle issues he feels need to be addressed. The latest example is his announcement over the weekend that he was moving forward with plans to create a new political party, the America Party for the "80% in the middle," to break the impasse formed by the two-party system in the United States.
Musk has shown a tendency to identify a challenge and home in on it as the fixer without necessarily considering whether he's best suited to do so, Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, a Yale School of Management leadership professor, told BI.
"That is the Musk playbook," he said.
Musk didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
While Musk's America Party is his reaction to President Donald Trump's sprawling spending bill, which will likely add to the national deficit and which Musk has repeatedly criticized, he earlier described his new party as one that would represent voters in the middle of the political spectrum.
Breaking the two-party system is a tall order. None of the many previous attempts have come close. Theodore Roosevelt's Progressive Party garnered 27% of the vote in 1912, and Ross Perot took in 19% of the vote in 1992 as an independent before forming the Reform Party for his 1996 bid.
But Musk is not one to shy away from the difficult.
"When something is important enough, you do it, even if the odds are not in your favor," Musk told "60 Minutes" in 2012.
OpenAI's Sam Altman, with whom Musk is currently engaged in a legal battle, has put it another way.
"Elon desperately wants the world to be saved. But only if he can be the one to save it," Altman said in a 2023 interview.
When challenges arise at one of Musk's companies, he "goes all in on it," Andy Wu, an associate professor of business administration at Harvard Business School, previously told BI.
Musk founded SpaceX a decade earlier, easily his most ambitious project, investing $100 million of his own fortune despite having no experience in aerospace engineering. With its reusable rockets, SpaceX overtook legacy aerospace giants to become the dominant launch provider for astronauts, satellites, and commercial payloads. Musk says his goal is to make space travel more accessible and to give life on Earth an option should the human race face extinction at home.
"I've said I want to die on Mars — just not on impact," Musk said during a 2013 keynote at South by Southwest.
Musk became an early investor in Tesla to tackle another problem he viewed as important: the environmental impact of fossil fuels. In 2006, before he became CEO, he wrote he was funding the company to "help expedite the move from a mine-and-burn hydrocarbon economy towards a solar electric economy." While Musk went on to create the most profitable EV company in the world, it has more recently struggled as Musk's foray into government impacted the brand and confounded investors.
Even The Boring Company, which Musk founded in 2017 to dig tunnels for underground transport, was born from Musk's frustration with Los Angeles traffic.
"Traffic is driving me nuts," Musk posted in December 2016. "Am going to build a tunnel boring machine and just start digging..."
The Boring Company has since completed four operational tunnels in Las Vegas that are open to the public, while other proposed projects, such as a high-speed tunnel in Chicago and a Washington-to-Baltimore hyperloop, have been shelved.
Musk's acquisition of Twitter in 2022 was a big swing — a $44 billion one, to be exact — to address another complex issue Musk saw as important.
In the wake of the pandemic and civil rights unrest, Musk said he worried that the freedom to say anything you wanted was at risk. Buying Twitter was his solution.
"This is a battle for the future of civilization," he said on Twitter in 2022 after acquiring it, six months before he rebranded it as X. "If free speech is lost even in America, tyranny is all that lies ahead."
Musk has also voiced concerns about the future of artificial intelligence. He's gone to war with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman over that company's attention to its mission, which Musk helped craft as an early cofounder: to develop artificial general intelligence in a way that benefits humanity. Musk sees AGI as an existential threat, and said it is one of the reasons he founded xAI, the startup behind the Grok chatbot, in 2023.
"I'm going to start something which I call TruthGPT or a maximum truth-seeking AI that tries to understand the nature of the universe," Musk told Fox News in 2023, adding that xAI "might be the best path to safety" that would be "unlikely to annihilate humans."
AI is also part of his stated reasoning for founding Neuralink, which designs brain chips so humans can interact with computers. The chip is now in trials and used by a handful of disabled patients, who use it to more easily communicate, operate computers, or play video games. Musk has said that the ability for humans to integrate directly with machines can help ensure human control of AI.
He said in a 2021 podcast appearance that he created Neuralink "specifically to address the AI symbiosis problem, which I think is an existential threat."
Musk may not be able to apply the same strategy to solving massive political challenges, said Sonnenfeld, the Yale professor, who's also the founder of Yale's Chief Executive Leadership Institute.
"He is great as a technology creator and entrepreneur, but not great in turnarounds and has been quite ham-handed in government, if not brutally offensive," Sonnenfeld said.
With his efforts at the Department of Government Efficiency, Musk set out to cut what he described as fraudulent or excessive spending. The group's cost-cutting efforts spurred widespread layoffs across federal departments — actions that drew backlash from some on the political left.
In the spring, Musk said that DOGE had been effective, though not to the degree he'd hoped. The spending cuts so far have fallen short of the initial target of slashing $2 trillion from federal outlays.
There are signs that Musk, whose plans for a new party attracted support from Mark Cuban among others, is open to taking a measured approach with his latest political play.
Musk said on Sunday that while the America Party may consider "backing a candidate for president" down the line, its main focus "for the next 12 months is on the House and the Senate."
Sonnenfeld said that Musk doesn't appear to have the skills and diplomacy needed to build his party, adding that the reaction among many investors and consumers to his political efforts has been "overwhelmingly negative."
"He's a brilliant technologist and an entrepreneur who doesn't know his limits — and he has them," Sonnenfeld said.
Read the original article on Business Insider
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CNBC
25 minutes ago
- CNBC
Inside the trade war's tariff hideouts, 'foreign' zones and bonded warehouses
To offset the rising costs of tariffs and trade war uncertainty, companies are using U.S. Customs-sanctioned foreign trade zones (FTZs) and bonded warehouses to delay or reduce product taxes. FTZs have a long history dating back to a previous period of trade conflict, created during the Great Depression by Congress to encourage international trade and boost exports at time when the Smoot-Hawley tariffs were as high as 53%. Companies importing raw materials, semi-finished, or components from foreign countries to an FTZ or bonded warehouse are essentially in a tariff bubble, meaning when they enter the U.S. they are stored duty-free. Once inside an FTZ, a product can be assembled or modified. Duties are only collected after a product leaves the zone and enters U.S. commerce. Products can be stored in an FTZ indefinitely. Bonded warehouses have a limit of up to five years. There are FTZs in all 50 states and there are approximately 2,240 FTZs in all across the nation, according to U.S. Customs. For companies caught in the crossfire of Trump's trade war, preserving cash is king. By delaying duty payments, "FTZs and bonded warehouses essentially frees up a company's cash flow," said Jason Strickland, director of sales at logistics firm Givens. "There is also the added benefit that if a product is manufactured in an FTZ and is re-exported abroad, no duty payments are incurred at all." Before the 2025 global trade war, companies that manufactured products in an FTZ had what is known as an "inverted tariff" benefit. That means the company had the option of paying a lower duty rate on the finished product versus paying the higher duties on the individual components brought into the manufacturing process. Companies that have operated inside FTZs include automakers Ford, GM and Chrysler, as well as General Electric, Intel and Sony. According to the World Free Zones Organization, FTZs were also used by Pfizer while it was developing the Covid vaccine. The program enabled Pfizer to produce shots without incurring additional duties on the drugs' components and store the vaccine until it received FDA approval. But President Trump ended that rule by way of recent executive orders, and for companies like Regent Tek Industries, which manufactures liquid road markings used by road crews to make the lines on the nation's roads, byways, and highways, that's become a big problem, resulting in millions of dollars in extra tariffs. "Our product is basically like baking a cake," said Helen Torkos, president of Regent Tek. "If you're missing one ingredient, you can't make that cake. We cannot source all of our components here. We are paying around 7% more now because the inverted tariff option is no longer available to us." Without the benefit of the FTZ inverted tariff, many companies quickly shifted to bonded warehouses. Strickland described the demand to CNBC as being through the roof. Companies can import products in a bubble under a higher tariff rate, and store without paying duties. But unlike the locking in of tariff rates on FTZs, if the tariff drops while a product is in a bonded warehouse, the company can release their product and pay the lower tariff rate. "At the end of the day, the goal is to protect your cash flow," Strickland said. "You don't want to bring in all your goods and spend your cash flow against tariffs that may not be here in, you know, six weeks, six months, if you can defer until the market is ready to consume those goods. I think that's a win-win."
Yahoo
25 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Ray Dalio says US debt is riskier than you think — here's the big problem he sees and how to protect yourself
Moneywise and Yahoo Finance LLC may earn commission or revenue through links in the content below. Ray Dalio, founder of the world's largest hedge fund, Bridgewater Associates, has a stark warning for Americans. 'For those who care about the value of their money, the risks for U.S. government debt are greater than the rating agencies are conveying,' he wrote in an alarming post on X in May. Thanks to Jeff Bezos, you can now become a landlord for as little as $100 — and no, you don't have to deal with tenants or fix freezers. Here's how I'm 49 years old and have nothing saved for retirement — what should I do? Don't panic. Here are 5 of the easiest ways you can catch up (and fast) You don't have to be a millionaire to gain access to this $1B private real estate fund. In fact, you can get started with as little as $10 — here's how Dalio was referring to the recent downgrade of the U.S. sovereign credit rating by Moody's, following similar moves by S&P Global in 2011 and Fitch in 2023. While these downgrades have made headlines, Dalio cautions that the real threat runs deeper than the government's ability to repay its debt obligations. '[Regarding] the U.S. debt downgrade, you should know that credit ratings understate credit risks because they only rate the risk of the government not paying its debt,' he explained. 'They don't include the greater risk that the countries in debt will print money to pay their debts thus causing holders of the bonds to suffer losses from the decreased value of the money they're getting (rather than from the decreased quantity of money they're getting).' Simply put, if the government resorts to printing more dollars, the currency itself loses real value — something Americans have experienced firsthand. The U.S. Dollar Index fell 10.8% in the first half of 2025 — marking its worst performance since 1973, when Richard Nixon was president. Meanwhile, inflation has steadily chipped away at the dollar's purchasing power. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis inflation calculator, $100 in 2025 buys what just $12.56 could in 1971 — the year the U.S. moved off the gold standard. If you share Dalio's concerns and care about protecting the value of your money, here's a look at a few ways to hedge against these risks. Gold has helped people preserve their wealth for thousands of years. Today, its appeal is simple: Unlike fiat currencies, the yellow metal can't be printed at will by central banks or governments. It's also widely regarded as the ultimate safe haven. Gold is not tied to any one country, currency or economy, and in times of economic turmoil or geopolitical uncertainty, investors often flock to it — driving prices higher. Dalio has repeatedly emphasized gold's importance in a resilient portfolio. 'People don't have, typically, an adequate amount of gold in their portfolio,' he told CNBC earlier this year. 'When bad times come, gold is a very effective diversifier.' Over the past 12 months, the price of the precious metal has surged by roughly 40%. One way to invest in gold that also provides significant tax advantages is to open a gold IRA with the help of Thor Metals. Gold IRAs allow investors to hold physical gold or gold-related assets within a retirement account, which combines the tax advantages of an IRA with the protective benefits of investing in gold, making it an attractive option for those looking to potentially hedge their retirement funds against economic uncertainties. To learn more, you can get a free information guide that includes details on how to get up to $20,000 in free metals on qualifying purchases. Gold isn't the only asset investors rely on to preserve their purchasing power. Real estate has also proven to be a powerful hedge. When inflation rises, property values often increase as well, reflecting the higher costs of materials, labor and land. At the same time, rental income tends to go up, providing landlords with a revenue stream that adjusts for inflation. Over the past five years, the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price NSA Index has jumped by more than 50%, reflecting strong demand and limited housing supply. Of course, high home prices can make buying a home more challenging, especially with mortgage rates still elevated. And being a landlord isn't exactly hands-off work — managing tenants, maintenance and repairs can quickly eat into your time (and returns). The good news? You don't need to buy a property outright — or deal with leaky faucets — to invest in real estate today. Crowdfunding platforms like Arrived offer an easier way to get exposure to this income-generating asset class. Backed by world class investors like Jeff Bezos, Arrived allows you to invest in shares of rental homes with as little as $100, all without the hassle of mowing lawns, fixing leaky faucets or handling difficult tenants. The process is simple: Browse a curated selection of homes that have been vetted for their appreciation and income potential. Once you find a property you like, select the number of shares you'd like to purchase, and then sit back as you start receiving positive rental income distributions from your investment. Another option is Homeshares, which gives accredited investors access to the $35 trillion U.S. home equity market — a space that's historically been the exclusive playground of institutional investors. With a minimum investment of $25,000, investors can gain direct exposure to hundreds of owner-occupied homes in top U.S. cities through their U.S. Home Equity Fund — without the headaches of buying, owning or managing property. With risk-adjusted target returns ranging from 14% to 17%, this approach provides an effective, hands-off way to invest in owner-occupied residential properties across regional markets. Read more: Rich, young Americans are ditching the stormy stock market — It's easy to see why great works of art tend to appreciate over time. Supply is limited and many famous pieces have already been snatched up by museums and collectors. Art also has a low correlation with stocks and bonds, which helps with diversification. In 2022, a collection of art owned by the late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen sold for $1.5 billion at Christie's New York, making it the most valuable collection in auction history. Investing in art was traditionally a privilege reserved for the ultra-wealthy. Now, that's changed with Masterworks — a platform for investing in shares of blue-chip artwork by renowned artists, including Pablo Picasso, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Banksy. It's easy to use, and with 23 successful exits to date, every one of them has been profitable thus far. Simply browse their impressive portfolio of paintings and choose how many shares you'd like to buy. Masterworks will handle all the details, making high-end art investments both accessible and effortless. In total, the platform has distributed roughly $61 million back to investors. New offerings have sold out in minutes, but you can skip their waitlist here. At the end of the day, everyone's financial situation is different — from income levels and investment goals to debt obligations and risk tolerance. If you're unsure where to start, it might be the right time to get in touch with a financial advisor through is an online platform that matches you with vetted financial advisors suited to your unique needs. They can help tailor a strategy to your unique financial situation, whether you're looking to grow wealth, diversify beyond stocks or plan for long-term financial security. Once you're matched with an advisor, you can book a free consultation with no obligation to hire. Here are the 6 levels of wealth for retirement-age Americans — are you near the top or bottom of the pyramid? This tiny hot Costco item has skyrocketed 74% in price in under 2 years — but now the retail giant is restricting purchases. Here's how to buy the coveted asset in bulk Car insurance in America could climb to a stunning $2,502/year on average — but here's how 2 minutes can save you more than $600 in 2025 Want an extra $1,300,000 when you retire? Dave Ramsey says this 7-step plan 'works every single time' to kill debt, get rich in America — and that 'anyone' can do it Money doesn't have to be complicated — sign up for the free Moneywise newsletter for actionable finance tips and news you can use. This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Black America Web
28 minutes ago
- Black America Web
Trump's ‘Good English' Gaffe Is Proof He Still Doesn't Get Africa Or Grammar
Source: Anadolu / Getty Donald Trump's latest attempt at foreign diplomacy was once again marked by ignorance after turning a diplomatic gesture into yet another example of his inability to speak respectfully or intelligently about other cultures, especially those from Africa. Earlier this week, while hosting five African leaders at the White House in what he framed as a renewed effort to 'invest in trade, not aid,' Trump managed to simultaneously insult and embarrass us all after asking Liberian President Joseph Boakai where he learned to 'speak so beautifully?' 'Such good English, it's beautiful,' Trump said. 'Where did you learn to speak so beautifully?' Boakai, seemingly unfazed, responded that he was educated in Liberia, where English is, in fact, the official language. Perplexed, Trump said: 'That's very interesting. I have people at this table who can't speak nearly as well.' But this wasn't a compliment, it was a microaggression wrapped in ignorance, delivered with the smugness of someone who can barely string together a grammatically correct sentence himself. What's worse than the remark was the reception by President Boakai. Rather than seizing the moment to challenge the insult, he instead nodded along before later noting that Liberia cosigned Trump's MAGA message. 'Liberia believes in the policy of making America great again,' Boakai said, sounding like a man too grateful for his seat at the table to question the menu. Let's talk about that for a moment. Founded in 1822 by the American Colonization Society, Liberia was birthed with the goal of resettling freed slaves in Africa. The country declared independence from the American Colonization Society in 1847. In truth, Boakai's deference exposes the flaws of post-colonial politics where former colonies are still put in the diplomatic position of having to show up at the empire's front door with their hat in hand, seeking approval, investments, and photo ops. Now, rather than continuing to stand in solidarity with fellow African nations building intra-continental partnerships as promised, Liberia seems to be forced into a return to the very apron strings its ancestors severed. Earlier this month, U.S. authorities dissolved the U.S. Agency for International Development and said it was no longer following what they called 'a charity-based foreign aid model.' That decision sent shock waves across Liberia, where American support made up almost 2.6% of the gross national income, the highest percentage anywhere in the world, according to the Center for Global Development. Following the inhumane decision with the backhanded compliment on President Boakai's dialect, many Africans who speak English, not as a second language but as a national one, view Trump's comment as not only offensive, but deeply condescending. South African politician Veronica Mente took to X to question why Boakai decided to remain in the meeting, writing: 'What stops [Boakai] from standing up and leaving?' While an unnamed Liberian diplomat reportedly told CNN the remark 'was not appropriate.' Foday Massaquoi, chairman of the opposition Congress for Democratic Change-Council of Patriots, told NBC that while the remarks were typical of Trump's engagement with foreign leaders, the condescending tone was amplified by the fact that the leaders were African. 'As a matter of fact, it also proves that the West is not taking us seriously as Africans,' Foday Massaquoi said. 'President Trump was condescending; he was very disrespectful to the African leader.' Source: JIM WATSON / Getty Kula Fofana, spokesperson for Boakai's office, told The Associated Press: 'I believe that as journalists, it is important to focus on the substantive discussions at the summit.' The optics are troubling. Instead of prioritizing the continued forging of stronger alliances with fellow African nations or investing in regional partnerships that prioritize African interests, Liberia is clamoring for U.S. approval and economic investment, and for what? A seat at a table where they are met with surprise at their ability to speak English? Liberia was created to escape the very systems of marginalization its leaders now seem willing to tolerate in exchange for attention from Western powers. Trump's fixation on English is a recycled political tool, a symbol of nationalism, and a Jim Crow-tainted litmus test attempting to determine worth and value by its proximity to whiteness. From mocking South Asian and Middle Eastern reporters for their accents to repeatedly praising the 'good English' of white European leaders, his comments reflect a deeply embedded bias. It's a bias that elevates whiteness as the standard of intellect and civility while dismissing everyone else. What makes his comments all the more absurd is his own often incoherent and error-riddled speech. This is a man who created words like 'covfefe,' signed an executive order declaring English the official language of the United States, and once told an English-speaking reporter he couldn't understand him 'because of the accent.' So when Trump marvels at another leader's ability to speak English 'beautifully,' the irony is almost laughable. The White House later defended the comment, calling it a 'heartfelt compliment,' but to many observers, it was yet another example of Trump's consistent failure to engage with the world respectfully or competently. At a time when Africa is emerging as a vital force in the global economy and a strategic player in the geopolitical arena, leaders like President Boakai must ask themselves: Are we here to build partnerships rooted in respect and mutual progress—or are we willing to trade dignity for diplomacy with a man who sees our brilliance as an anomaly? Because while Trump may have praised 'good English,' the world heard something far more familiar, the echo of condescension from a man who clearly benefited from teachers grading on a curve. SEE ALSO: Trump's Firing Of Carla Hayden Is Another Attack On Knowledge And History Donald Trump, Executive Overreach, And Project 2025's Blueprint SEE ALSO Trump's 'Good English' Gaffe Is Proof He Still Doesn't Get Africa Or Grammar was originally published on
