Elon Musk hasn’t gone “founder mode” on building the America Party just yet.
On July 5, enraged by the passage of the “Big Beautiful Bill” and encouraged by the results of an online poll, Musk said he would form a new political party in the United States.
Over a month later, he hasn’t taken any of the formal steps necessary to do so, and he hasn’t publicly mentioned the idea in weeks. That’s despite praise from Mark Cuban and a warning from the head of the Democratic Party that Musk’s effort should be “taken seriously.”
In the meantime, several polls have indicated that while many Americans are hungry for a third party, far fewer are interested in one founded by Musk. This week, one of his top aides at both DOGE and xAI announced that she was breaking off to start her own podcast.
Musk has also remained a major GOP donor as he’s toyed with the idea of starting a third party and feuded with President Donald Trump, according to campaign finance records made public at the end of July.
The tech titan gave a total of $15 million to several GOP super PACs on June 27, including:
- $5 million to MAGA Inc, which supports Trump;
- $5 million to the Senate Leadership Fund, which supports GOP senators and Senate candidates;
- $5 million to the Congressional Leadership Fund, which supports Republican House members and candidates.
Those donations came just days before Musk said he’d form the America Party — and weeks after he first floated the idea at the beginning of his feud with Trump.
“Is it time to create a new political party in America that actually represents the 80% in the middle?” Musk asked his followers on June 5.
All of this isn’t to say that Musk couldn’t pivot back to the project at some point. And if he did, he’d be joining a club of businessmen who’ve tried to take on the two-party system over the years.
It takes a lot to stand up a new political party, including filing paperwork with the Federal Election Commission, collecting signatures to get on the ballot in various states, and recruiting candidates to run in House and Senate races next year.
In other words, it’s a resource-intensive and time-consuming process, and there’s little indication that Musk has undertaken it. Musk did not respond to BI’s request for comment for this story.
Musk, the world’s richest man, is known to go “founder mode” on things that he cares deeply about, devoting extraordinary amounts of energy and time to projects and even sleeping at the office.
He did it when he took over Twitter, now known as X. He’s done it at Tesla. He did it when he went all-in on supporting Trump in 2024. And he brought that same approach to DOGE, until he began winding down his involvement in late April.
If Musk is serious about standing up a new party, we might expect him to bring that same “founder mode” approach to this venture. But so far, it hasn’t happened.
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