For all his smarts and business success, Elon Musk is the mosquito who can’t stay away from the purple bug-zapper light.
Having lost interest in his Department of Government Efficiency, Musk left his work for the federal government a few weeks ago. It didn’t take long for him to start criticizing President Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill, which got signed into law on July 4th.
Now Musk, of all people, says he’s going to start the America Party to tear into what he called the Republican-Democratic “uniparty.”
It might sound grand, but who is he kidding? Even President Trump got a chuckle out of it, saying third parties never work. He basically told Musk to have fun with his new toy.
Musk wants to aim the America Party at what he called “the 80% in the middle,” considering it a centrist group that would work with both Republicans and Democrats. Go for it, buddy, but the percentage of voters who haven’t permanently chosen a side is more likely between 20% and 40%.
Which makes a new party’s chances of success that much slimmer. And then you have to get into the details. Such as: Exactly how do you balance the federal budget to start paying down our $36 trillion debt? Who wins and who loses?
It’s almost unbelievable that Musk is seriously considering this. It’s as if, having stood close to the pinnacle of political power, he’s been seduced by it and wants to feel it again.
More likely, he’s worried about the Big Beautiful Bill’s removal of the $7,500 tax credit for electric vehicle buyers. Or maybe he’s finally figured out that somebody whose companies got a total of $38 billion in federal aid over the years is the wrong person to swing a poorly aimed wrecking ball at government spending.
However, an opening does exist for a third path. Neither party supports free trade, which only helped make the United States the wealthiest nation in the world. And nobody is serious about dealing with government debt. The conservatives who talk about it just voted to borrow $3 trillion more, giving them a share of Trump’s TACO nickname: They Always Chicken Out.
Musk is not the guy to lead the way down that third path. He’s an immigrant. He lacks the ability to focus on long-term political change. And his business interests inevitably will get the majority of his attention.
