United States President Donald Trump has slammed former ally Elon Musk’s launching of a new political party as “ridiculous”, deepening the Republican’s feud with the man who was once his biggest backer, Al Jazeera reports.
The world’s richest man was almost inseparable from Trump as he headed the cost-cutting Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), but they fell out hard over the president’s “big beautiful” tax and spending mega-bill.
“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.
SpaceX and Tesla tycoon Musk says the president’s massive domestic spending plan would explode the US debt, and has promised to do everything in his power to defeat lawmakers who voted for it.
The former DOGE head, who led a huge drive to slash federal spending and cut jobs, equated Trump’s Republicans with rival Democrats when it came to domestic spending.
Musk gave few details of his plan, and it was not clear whether he had registered the party with US electoral authorities, but it could cause Republicans headaches in the 2026 midterm elections and beyond.
“I am saddened to watch Elon Musk go completely ‘off the rails,’ essentially becoming a TRAIN WRECK over the past five weeks,” Trump posted.
“The one thing Third Parties are good for is the creation of Complete and Total DISRUPTION & CHAOS, and we have enough of that with the Radical Left Democrats.”
