Tech billionaire Elon Musk on Friday leaned into his proposal for a third party amid his growing feud with President Trump over the “big, beautiful” spending and tax bill with an Independence Day poll online.
Hours before Trump signed the sprawling reconciliation package into law, Musk asked followers on social platform X whether he should move forward with creating the “America Party.” He first floated the idea after his first public spat with the president early last month.
“Independence Day is the perfect time to ask if you want independence from the two-party (some would say uniparty) system!” he wrote. “Should we create the America Party?”
The Tesla CEO, who also owns X, reupped the survey several times throughout the day and even gave a glimpse into his potential strategy.
“One way to execute on this would be to laser-focus on just 2 or 3 Senate seats and 8 to 10 House districts,” he shared in a subsequent post. “Given the razor-thin legislative margins, that would be enough to serve as the deciding vote on contentious laws, ensuring that they serve the true will of the people.”
The poll, similar to one he set up for followers last month, is just the latest way Musk sought to get under Trump and GOP lawmakers’ skin as the bill made its way to Trump’s desk.
The House passed the final bill on Thursday, after hours of tense negotiations with GOP holdouts.
While the Senate worked to pass its own version of the megabill earlier this week, Musk threatened to back primary challengers of those who supported the legislation. In response, the president warned the billionaire that he could cut government contracts for his many companies and also left open the possibility of deporting the South African CEO.
Musk left his senior Trump administration adviser position in late May, after his special government employee designation lapsed. He had originally been tapped to lead the president’s Department of Government Efficiency — a commission created to root out waste and fraud within the federal government.
While many questioned how long the relationship between the world’s richest man and Trump would last, the rift only began after Musk criticized the reconciliation package as a “disgusting abomination” and said it would be “political suicide” for Republicans.
The president said he was disappointed with the billionaire’s analysis, which led to a tense back-and-forth between the men online. Tesla sales have plunged since the squabble.
Musk admitted at one point that his comments “went too far” and the ice seemed to be thawing, but the feud was reignited earlier this week over the bill — which includes an extension on Trump’s 2017 tax breaks and sweeping cuts to Medicaid and energy tax credits.
During a signing ceremony at the White House Friday, Trump said, “We made promises, and it’s really promises made, promises kept, and we’ve kept them.”
“This is a triumph of democracy on the birthday of democracy,” he continued. “And I have to say, the people are happy.”