logo
Musk's primary threats pose danger for Republicans

Musk's primary threats pose danger for Republicans

Yahoo2 days ago
Elon Musk is threatening to primary Republicans who voted for President Trump's 'big, beautiful bill,' posing a challenge for the president and his allies as they look to defy midterm headwinds.
Musk vowed earlier this week that Republicans who supported Trump's megabill 'will lose their primary next year if it is the last thing I do on this Earth' as the Tesla CEO has reignited his feud with Trump in recent days.
Republicans see the comments as unhelpful, with some saying if the threats come to fruition, it could risk diverting resources away in an election environment that historically hasn't been kind to the president's party in power.
'One of the most destructive behaviors that we've had in cycles where we've been unsuccessful in Senate races … are those in which we have expended massive resources in intraparty warfare,' said one Republican consultant who's worked on Senate races.
Ever since Musk ended his stint at the White House, the billionaire has been a vocal critic of Trump's major policy bill, taking particular issue with the projected trillions of dollars multiple analyses say will add to the deficit.
The House narrowly passed the final version of the bill on Thursday, and Trump signed it Friday evening at a White House Fourth of July event.
But Musk's frustrations reached a new point on Monday when he said he would back challengers to Republicans who supported Trump's agenda-setting legislation, while saying he would also look to protect Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), a prominent opponent of the bill who has drawn Trump's ire.
The Tesla CEO also suggested it was time for a new political party.
'It is obvious with the insane spending of this bill, which increases the debt ceiling by a record FIVE TRILLION DOLLARS that we live in a one-party country — the PORKY PIG PARTY!! Time for a new political party that actually cares about the people,' he said on the social platform X, which he owns.
Some lawmakers have sought to brush off Musk's threat.
'I'll take President Trump's endorsement over Elon's any day of the week, back home,' Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) said in an interview with Just the News's Nicholas Ballasy regarding the potential primary challenge.
Marshall said his Republican colleagues were 'ignoring' Musk.
Trump, meanwhile, left the door open this week to deporting Musk, who was born in South Africa and became a naturalized U.S. citizen. He also suggested Musk's advisory Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) could be turned against the billionaire and his companies.
'I think what's going to happen is DOGE is going to look at Musk. And if DOGE looks at Musk, we're going to save a fortune,' Trump said while in Florida on Tuesday. 'I don't think he should be playing that game with me.'
The White House and a representative for Musk did not respond to requests for comment for this story.
Some Republicans expressed skepticism that Musk would actually follow through in launching primary challenges against GOP incumbents, while others didn't view the billionaire's remarks as an immediate threat.
'I think the president is much more popular with the base right now than Elon Musk, and I think our elected representatives are also more popular,' said Mark Jefferson, a former executive director for the Wisconsin GOP.
'I don't take the threat all that seriously, because how do you primary hundreds of people?' asked Georgia-based Republican consultant Brian Robinson.
Unlike Musk, Trump has a history of trying to oust Republicans with whom he's been at odds, with varying degrees of success. And Trump's allies have already signaled this cycle they're not afraid to go after holdouts and members of the party they see as stymieing the president and his agenda. A pro-Trump super PAC has already been created with the goal of 'firing' Massie.
'Unless and until Musk can start lining up some A-team candidates or credible people or people in the same wing of the party, he's going nowhere,' said top GOP donor Eric Levine, who described Massie as 'fringe.'
Other Republicans suggest it may not be long before Trump and Musk are back on good terms again.
While it's too soon to say how serious Musk might be about his primary threats, the moves would be an unnecessary obstacle for the party.
'I hope that he doesn't, obviously, because I think that primary fights normally don't do anything but strengthen the opposition,' said longtime GOP donor Bill Bean.
Bean acknowledged that Musk 'has a point' about the GOP legislation raising the deficit, but he also voiced concern that Musk's primary challenges against members of Congress could force Republicans to divert resources from areas where the party might not otherwise have been concerned.
'I think that his money would be much better spent instead of primarying conservative Republicans who maybe aren't 100 percent as conservative or 100 percent agree with him to go out and win elections in swing districts,' Bean said.
'I guarantee you, if we had a 30-seat majority in the House and a 12-seat majority in the Senate, the bill right now going through would be a lot closer to what he would like to see,' he added.
Musk's remarks represent a noteworthy shift from just months ago, when he was considered one of Trump's biggest allies.
His America PAC spent tens of millions of dollars alone supporting the president during the 2024 election, and he was a critical donor for Wisconsin Republicans earlier this year as they looked to narrow the spending gap against Democrats in the high-stakes state Supreme Court race.
Even while Musk has opened up old wounds with Trump over Republicans' major policy bill, it hasn't stopped him from offering some praise for the president. He lauded the president last week over his handling of foreign affairs, writing Wednesday in a post on X: 'Credit where credit is due. @realDonaldTrump has successfully resolved several serious conflicts around the world.'
Meanwhile, some Republicans have a warning for Musk, should he follow through on his threats.
'Musk is deeply hated among Democrats. For now, he maintains good standing among Republicans, but if he follows through, he will lose them as well and be a man without a country,' said Michigan-based GOP strategist Jason Cabel Roe in an email to The Hill. 'That will sabotage any political or business initiatives he's involved in.'
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Trial Over Free Speech on Campus, and Trump's Student Crackdown, Begins
Trial Over Free Speech on Campus, and Trump's Student Crackdown, Begins

New York Times

time10 minutes ago

  • New York Times

Trial Over Free Speech on Campus, and Trump's Student Crackdown, Begins

A federal judge in Boston on Monday will hear opening statements in a trial expected to cut to the heart of several of the most divisive issues in U.S. politics, including President Trump, Israel and free speech on college campuses. The case, filed by a pair of academic associations in March, has become the foremost challenge to the Trump administration's aggressive posture toward foreign students who espoused pro-Palestinian views. It contends that the government's targeting of prominent noncitizen academics who have criticized Israel — such as Mahmoud Khalil and Mohsen Mahdawi of Columbia University and Rumeysa Ozturk of Tufts — has already partially succeeded in chilling political speech across the country, and should be categorically stopped on First Amendment grounds. All of those academics, who are either legal permanent residents or in the United States on student visas, have successfully fought for and obtained their release even as their immigration cases continue to wend through the courts. But lawyers for the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, who are representing the associations, will argue at trial this week that the arrests were part of an official policy that could just as easily be turned on other groups that clash with the Trump administration. While the Supreme Court has affirmed in at least one major case that foreign nationals living in the United States are generally entitled to First Amendment rights, constitutional law experts have cautioned that there are few obvious legal parallels in American history. In its filings, the government has argued that pro-Palestinian demonstrations are an expression of support for Hamas, which the American government considers a terrorist organization. It has relied on Cold War-era precedents in which the Supreme Court upheld the government's power to deny entry to people over their past membership in the Communist Party. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.

Elon Musk Can't Run For President—But This Is What His Party Can Do
Elon Musk Can't Run For President—But This Is What His Party Can Do

Newsweek

time10 minutes ago

  • Newsweek

Elon Musk Can't Run For President—But This Is What His Party Can Do

Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. Elon Musk's new political party could split the right-wing vote but is unlikely to succeed in any major way, experts have told Newsweek. While Musk cannot run for president because he was born in South Africa, the party has the potential to shake-up politics ahead of the midterms, though it is doubtful it will break through in its own right. Experts doubted Musk could organize a fully fledged political party in time to fight the midterms in a meaningful way, but conceded that he could certainly create enough disruption to cause a few upsets and allow the democrats to make significant gains. Why It Matters On Saturday, Musk announced he was forming a new political party called the "America Party." It came after Musk—who supported Trump during the 2024 presidential election campaign and who the president put in charge of the agency Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) —fell out with Trump over "The One Big Beautiful Bill." Elon Musk and President Donald Trump take part in a press conference in the Oval Office at the White House May 30, 2025. Elon Musk and President Donald Trump take part in a press conference in the Oval Office at the White House May 30, 2025. Francis Chung/POLITICO via AP Images Musk posted a poll on July 4, asking respondents if they wanted a new party, with 65.4 percent saying that they backed the idea. On X, formerly Twitter, he wrote: "Today, the America Party is formed to give you back your freedom," citing the poll. What To Know As a foreign-born U.S. citizen, Musk cannot run for president but he can support third-party candidates, who can put themselves on the ballot in every state, if they have enough signatures to support their bid. It is rare for third-party candidates to break through significantly. Experts told Newsweek that it is possible that Musk's party could split the right-wing vote. If this happens, Democrats may be able to pick up seats in the Senate and the House. Given the Republican majorities in these institutions are so slight, this could affect the balance of the House. They also noted that to be successful, the party would need to be well-organized and well financed, or it will flounder. What People Are Saying Speaking to Newsweek, Carl Tobias, Williams chair in law at the University of Richmond said: "Musk provides few specifics regarding his vision for creating a new viable third party, which has rarely succeeded in the country's 250-year history. However, Musk's attempt to establish another political party appears likely to bring even greater uncertainty into the already unclear Senate and House midterm elections. For instance, Democrats must only win a small number of posts in the Senate and the House to capture razor-thin majorities in each house. Musk, whose mantra is to 'move rapidly and break things,' could well do exactly that in the 2026 midterm elections." Scott Lucas, a professor in international politics at University College Dublin, told Newsweek that the success of the party "depends on whether Elon has the bandwidth in terms of time, resources and attention span to do what is necessary to establish a political party." "It's one thing to tweet about it," he continued, "it's far different to organize it." He added that Musk would need to recruit candidates and staff as well as volunteers across the United States to get the movement off the ground and that there is not much time to do that before the November 2026 midterms. He also said that while Musk is well-financed, if he is the only person financing the venture then "it doesn't really look like a party as much as an ego project." "This can't just simply be a one-man show firing off tweets and just poking at Trump," he said. Dafydd Townley, an American politics expert at the University of Portsmouth, previously told Newsweek that "third parties do not tend to have a long lifetime in American politics," adding that Musk's new party "would likely split the Republican vote, potentially resulting in a Democrat-dominated House of Representatives, at least in the short term, due to the winner-takes-all electoral system." What Happens Next The impact Musk's party will have on a federal level remains to be seen as further details about it emerge. It is not known how the party will be structured and what other figures will be involved in it though some political figures have appeared to express interest in the venture.

Israel and Hamas are inching toward a new ceasefire deal for Gaza. This is how it might look
Israel and Hamas are inching toward a new ceasefire deal for Gaza. This is how it might look

Chicago Tribune

time11 minutes ago

  • Chicago Tribune

Israel and Hamas are inching toward a new ceasefire deal for Gaza. This is how it might look

JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in Washington Monday to meet U.S. President Donald Trump, who has been pushing for a ceasefire that might lead to an end to the 21-month war in Gaza. Israel and Hamas are considering a new U.S.-backed ceasefire proposal that would pause the war, free Israeli hostages and send much-needed aid flooding into Gaza. It also aims to open broader talks about ending the conflict. Negotiations have repeatedly stalled over Hamas' demands for an end to the war and complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, while Israel wants Hamas to surrender and disarm before it ends the war. While the final details have yet to be agreed to by the sides, The Associated Press obtained a copy of the proposal sent by mediators to Hamas. — The truce would last 60 days. — 10 living hostages and the remains of 18 would be released in phases throughout the truce. — Palestinian prisoners held by Israel will be released in exchange for the hostages, although precise numbers were not detailed. — Humanitarian aid entering Gaza would be ramped up significantly and would be distributed by the United Nations. The proposal makes no mention of the U.S.- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. — Israeli forces would withdraw to a buffer zone along Gaza's borders with Israel and Egypt. Israel has seized large swaths of the territory since ending a previous ceasefire in March. — On the first day of the truce, the sides are expected to begin negotiations toward an end to the war, but no timeline is mentioned. — The mediators — the U.S., Egypt and Qatar — will serve as guarantors to make sure the sides negotiate in good faith. — While there is no guarantee the war would end, the proposal states that Trump insists the talks during the truce 'would lead to a permanent resolution of the conflict.' — If the negotiations toward ending the war are not complete after 60 days, the ceasefire may be extended. — The proposal says Trump will personally announce the ceasefire deal once it is reached.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store