Political views of the entrepreneur and attempts to interfere with elections around the world have already triggered waves of protests against Tesla
SAO PAULO, SP (Folhapress) -, caused by the “Grande and Beautiful” project of tax cuts of the president of the United States, gave vent to another breach of the billionaire – the idea of creating an alternative party to the Democrat and Republican, who have dominated American politics since the 19th century.
“With the insane spending of this bill, it is obvious that we live in a single party country,” wrote Musk on social network X, last Monday (30), a day before the US Senate approved 51 votes to 50 Trump text. “It’s time for a new political party that really cares about the people.”
He had already adventured the plan in early June, when he also criticized the proposal. “Is it time to create a new political party in the US that really represents the 80% of the middle?” He asked his X followers in a publication accompanied by a poll.
Since then, the idea has been appearing on its social networks, often accompanied by criticism of the country’s already swollen debt levels – in the beginning of the year, Musk even headed the DOGE (Government Efficiency Department), spending -cutting initiative that had its main diversity programs in the US government and the USAID foreign aid agency.
“If this insane spending project is approved, the America will be formed the next day,” he said on Monday. “Our country needs an alternative to the single democratic-republican party so that the people really have a voice.”
Money would not be a problem for the richest man in the world-Musk put $ 291.5 million in the Republican Party in 2024, becoming the largest individual donor that year with a difference of nearly $ 120 million to second place in the same period, according to the OpenSecrets organization.
A Gallup survey released in October last year pointed out that 58% of US adults agreed that a third relevant party is necessary in US politics – close to the 56% support that the idea has sustained in the last two decades, according to the institute.
Effectively founding a party to try to overcome the rule of republicans and democrats, but it would be an endeavor with many other obstacles. Other attempts always failed electoral terms – the most successful third -way experience was that of also billionaire Ross Perot, who got 19% of popular votes as an independent candidate in 1992.
Musk would have another challenge – the cost to his business from such a radical political foray.
The entrepreneur’s political views and attempts to interfere with elections around the world triggered protest waves against Tesla, one of his main companies in the US and Europe, leading to a fall of 71% of the automaker’s profits in the first quarter of 2025. In the face of repercussions in May, he promised to stay another five years as CEO of the company and said he would spend less with future elections.
In addition, Musk was not very successful in a recent effort to elect a conservative judge for the Supreme Court of Wisconsin. Even with a high investment, the candidate lost slack in April, and the billionaire’s presence was pointed out as one of the factors that may have disturbed the campaign, according to Barry Burden, director of the University of Wisconsin Electoral Research Center.
“A new party will benefit more from Musk if you can enjoy your resources, but keep it in the background,” Burden told The Washington Post. “And if he can present himself as an innovator and a technology entrepreneur – and someone who is really contributing to the American economy and funding this new operation – I think it will probably lead to a greater success.”
For Lee Drutman, senior researcher at Think Tank New America “third parties are traditionally spoiled or wasted votes.” But if Musk’s goal is to “cause chaos, mark position and disturb, it is much easier,” he told the post.
Current political polarization would make the success of an even more difficult third party. Perot, for example, managed to raise 19% of the votes in the 1990s because his competitors Bill Clinton and George Hw Bush had a more center rhetoric and therefore more similar, allowing him to present himself as the only real change.
“If there was clearly a party in the center that was more popular than the Democrats or the Republicans, then someone would have already organized it,” said Drutman. “It’s not like we are just waiting for Elon Musk to appear.”
