Elon Musk says he is launching a new political party, weeks after dramatically falling out with US President Donald Trump.
The billionaire announced on his social media platform X that he had set up the America Party, billing it as a challenge to the Republican and Democratic two-party system.
However, it is unclear if the party has been formally registered with US election authorities. Musk, who was born outside of the US and is thus ineligible to run for the US presidency, does not say who will lead it.
The last time a billionaire led a 3rd party effort, Ross Perot 1992 presidential campaign, Bill Clinton beat the incumbent, Daddy Shrub. Perot was quirky, but not as quirky as Melon.
It'll be interesting to see if it goes past the "pretend" stage and if it does, it'll be interesting to see who its primary demographic focus will be. Historically, splinter parties have needed a strong personality leading as an actual candidate - not just as an owner/sponsor or fund raiser. The two most successful candidates outside major parties were Ross Perot and George Wallace (ironically also in a made-up party also called "American Independent". Splinter groups without that sort of charismatic leader haven't done so well. But a good starting point would be "who would be an Elon Musk follower?" Such a person would be saying in effect "If Elon likes the candidate, I'll like him, and if the candidate gets in office, I'll expect Elon to be his primary advisor." I don't see Elon's party to be the type of mainstream moderate that would attract dissidents from both repugs and dems as well as attracting some unaffiliateds. So yeah, my guess is that he'll take away repug votes. Yay.
