(AFP) – President Donald Trump on Sunday slammed former ally Elon Musk’s launching of a new political party as “ridiculous,” after the tech billionaire who once backed the Republican said he wanted to challenge the United States’ “one-party system.”
“I think it’s ridiculous to start a third party,” Trump told reporters before he boarded Air Force One on his way back to Washington. “It’s always been a two-party system, and I think starting a third party just adds to confusion.”
“Third parties have never worked. So he can have fun with it, but I think it’s ridiculous,” he said. The world’s richest person — and Trump’s biggest political donor in the 2024 election — had a bitter falling out with the president after leading the Republican’s effort to slash spending and cut federal jobs as head of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Musk has clashed with Trump over the president’s massive domestic spending plan, saying it would explode the US debt, and vowed to do everything in his power to defeat lawmakers who voted for it. On Saturday, he created the so-called “America Party,” through which the Tesla, SpaceX and X owner will attempt to do that.
In a later post on Truth Social, Trump said Musk had gone “off the rails” and had become “a TRAIN WRECK over the past five weeks.” He said the creation of a third party would create “Complete and Total DISRUPTION & CHAOS.” Trump repeated his earlier assertion that Musk, who owns electric vehicle company Tesla, had turned on him due to his spending bill cutting electric vehicle subsidies.
Musk has argued his opposition is primarily due to the bill increasing the US fiscal deficit and sovereign debt. Earlier on Sunday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also threw shade at Musk’s attempts to enter the political fray, telling him to stick to running his companies.
When asked by CNN if Musk’s plan bothered the Trump administration, Bessent offered thinly veiled criticism. “I believe that the boards of directors at his various companies wanted him to come back and run those companies, which he is better at than anyone,” Bessent said. “So I imagine that those board of directors did not like this announcement yesterday and will be encouraging him to focus on his business activities, not his political activities.”
Musk left DOGE in May to focus full-time on his corporate responsibilities, with Tesla’s sales and image especially suffering from his brief venture into Trump’s inner circle.
© 2024 AFP
