Latest news with #politicalalternative
Yahoo
02-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Elon Musk just made his starkest political threat since the election
After declaring he was stepping away from the political spotlight, Elon Musk got right back in it. As the Senate debated President Donald Trump's 'Big, Beautiful Bill' on Monday before a final vote, Musk issued a stark warning via his social media platform X. 'Every member of Congress who campaigned on reducing government spending and then immediately voted for the biggest debt increase in history should hang their head in shame! And they will lose their primary next year if it is the last thing I do on this Earth,' he wrote. A few hours later he went further, declaring on X that if the 'insane spending bill passes, the America Party will be formed the next day.' 'Our country needs an alternative to the Democrat-Republican uniparty so that the people actually have a VOICE,' he wrote. In a late-night post on social media, Trump hit back against Musk and threatened to direct the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) against the tech billionaire. 'Elon may get more subsidy than any human being in history, by far, and without subsidies, Elon would probably have to close up shop and head back home to South Africa. No more Rocket launches, Satellites, or Electric Car Production, and our Country would save a FORTUNE. Perhaps we should have DOGE take a good, hard, look at this? BIG MONEY TO BE SAVED!!!' Trump wrote on his Truth Social. For weeks, Musk has railed against Trump's policy bill, leading to a very public and ugly fight with Trump earlier this month. In a flurry of X posts several weeks ago, Musk had proposed starting a new political party. That proposal resurfaced on Monday, when Musk said: '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.' Musk's resolution to support candidates who plan to launch primary campaigns against members of Congress is one of Musk's most concrete political threats since leaving his post as a White House adviser. Musk spent more than $275 million to support Trump and other Republican candidates in the 2024 election. In late May he said in an interview he was planning to cut back on political spending, saying he has 'done enough.' According to Federal Election Commission filings, Musk's political action committee, America PAC, last gave money in March to support two Republican candidates running in special elections in Florida – Randy Fine and Jimmy Patronis. Musk has long supported closed borders, deportations and stopping illegal immigration, in line with the Trump administration. But the domestic policy bill has appeared to trigger a rift between the Tesla CEO and the White House. Musk has argued that the Republican policy bill will increase the debt, calling it 'debt slavery.' The Senate bill would add nearly $3.3 trillion to the deficit over the next decade, according to a Congressional Budget Office estimate released Sunday. The Senate legislation costs more than the House-approved bill, which would add $2.4 trillion to the deficit over the next decade. The Senate package contains deeper tax cuts, fewer spending cuts and provisions that would raise revenue. The White House has argued the bill 'slashes deficits' and the debt, while 'unleashing economic growth.' The Trump administration and certain Senate Republicans are opting not to include the cost of extending the 2017 Trump tax cuts in their calculations of the bill's impact on the federal deficit. Though Musk has said the loss of electric vehicle (EV) and solar energy subsidies and credits in the bill are not why he opposes the legislation, he has complained the bill 'gives handouts to industries of the past while severely damaging industries of the future.' In his post on Truth Social, Trump defended his position against EV mandates, writing: 'Elon Musk knew, long before he so strongly Endorsed me for President, that I was strongly against the EV Mandate. It is ridiculous, and was always a major part of my campaign. Electric cars are fine, but not everyone should be forced to own one.' CNN's Tami Luhby contributed reporting.
Gizmodo
30-06-2025
- Politics
- Gizmodo
Elon Says He's Launching ‘the America Party' to Compete With Democrats and Republicans If Budget Bill Passes
Elon Musk is threatening to launch his own political party called the America Party if President Donald Trump's so-called 'Big Beautiful Bill' passes. And while the billionaire oligarch already suggested the idea almost a month ago after his falling out with Trump, he seems serious this time. 'If this insane spending bill passes, the America Party will be formed the next day,' Musk tweeted on Monday. 'Our country needs an alternative to the Democrat-Republican uniparty so that the people actually have a VOICE.' Passing the bill has been quite a slog for the Republicans, even as they hold a majority in both chambers of Congress. As it stands, the bill would be a massive transfer of wealth from the poorest Americans to the wealthiest, causing an estimated 11.8 million Americans to lose their health insurance and adding $3.3 trillion to the federal deficit, according to the Congressional Budget Office. But it's only that last part about the deficit Musk seems concerned about, even as some Republicans have expressed concerns about the number of people who will lose Medicaid coverage. Musk, who started Trump's term by doing two Nazi-style salutes, also tweeted Monday about how he would fund primary challenges to anyone who voted for the Republican bill, putting it in the kind of dramatic language the far-right has embraced in the Trump era. 'Every member of Congress who campaigned on reducing government spending and then immediately voted for the biggest debt increase in history should hang their head in shame!' Musk wrote Monday. 'And they will lose their primary next year if it is the last thing I do on this Earth.' Musk was Trump's right-hand man as the head of DOGE earlier this year but had a dramatic spat with the president that spiraled quickly. Musk said Trump was in the Jeffrey Epstein files, strongly hinting the president was involved in sexual abuse, while Trump threatened to take away Musk's lucrative federal contracts. Musk eventually backed down, deleting his tweet accusing Trump of Epstein connections and rescinding a threat to stop shuttling astronauts to the International Space Station. It's not clear what Musk might do to make his new America Party a reality, but he's obviously been deeply involved in political organizing before. This is the guy who spent over a quarter of a billion dollars to get Trump and other Republicans elected in 2024, starting his own political action committee called America PAC to get the job done. Musk is also frustrated by a raise in the debt ceiling, something other Republicans like Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky have opposed. '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,' Musk wrote. Aside from the deficit and the debt ceiling, Musk is also clearly upset with his own companies getting stung by a decline in tax credits for things like electric vehicles. 'The latest Senate draft bill will destroy millions of jobs in America and cause immense strategic harm to our country! Utterly insane and destructive,' Musk wrote on Sunday. 'It gives handouts to industries of the past while severely damaging industries of the future.' As the wealthiest person in the world, it would be easy for a guy like Musk to hire a team and start his own political party. But that doesn't mean getting anyone elected from that party would be a cinch. America's two-party system is rigged in so many ways that the average person doesn't understand. But one thing most everyone understands is the Electoral College and how it creates a system that's uniquely unfair among liberal democracies. The most infamous example is perhaps Ross Perot's presidential bid as an independent candidate in 1992. Perot won 19% of the popular vote, almost 1 in 5 of all votes cast that year for president. Perot was awarded zero Electoral College votes. Musk is a wealthy guy. But it remains to be seen whether even the wealthiest person in the world can challenge Washington's two-party system in such a stacked system.
