Trump calls Musk's new party claims 'a train wreck'

Former allies turned bitter rivals, Donald Trump and Elon Musk are now locked in a political feud, as the tech billionaire vows to launch a new party to challenge both Republicans and Democrats.

Musk’s new party

What started as a seemingly close relationship, Musk once led Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has soured dramatically.

The final break appears to have come over Trump’s sweeping new legislation, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which Musk claims will cost Americans “millions of jobs.”

In response, Musk announced plans to form a new political entity: the America Party, pledging to oppose the political establishment on both sides.

Musk, who has previously donated to both major parties, says the system is broken. “When it comes to bankrupting our country with waste and graft, we live in a one-party system, not a democracy,” he wrote on X. “Today, the America Party is formed to give you back your freedom.”

Trump, however, isn’t impressed. Speaking to reporters while returning from his New Jersey golf club, he dismissed Musk’s ambitions as “ridiculous.”

Has been building for months

“Third parties have never worked,” Trump said, via BBC News. “He can have fun with it, but I think it’s ridiculous.”

On Truth Social, Trump went further, branding Musk a “train wreck” and accusing him of spiraling out of control in recent weeks. “The one thing Third Parties are good for is Complete and Total DISRUPTION & CHAOS,” Trump wrote.

The tension between the two moguls has been building for months. Musk briefly stirred controversy when he suggested, without evidence, that Trump was named in unreleased portions of the Epstein files. He later apologized and retracted the claim, but the damage to their relationship was done.

Trump has accused Musk of turning on him over financial interests, specifically, his administration’s move to scale back subsidies for electric vehicles, which would directly affect Tesla, The Guardian details.

The president also criticized Musk for attempting to secure “improper influence” by nominating close friend and billionaire Jared Isaacman as NASA Administrator. After Musk stepped down from his government role, the nomination was quietly dropped.

“He wanted a friend of his, who’s deep in the space business, to run NASA. That’s a conflict of interest,” Trump said.

For his part, Musk remains defiant, using his massive platform to slam Trump’s administration for what he sees as reckless economic mismanagement and entrenched political corruption.

Whether Musk will actually move forward with building the America Party remains unclear. Political analysts have pointed out that no third party has successfully disrupted the two-party system in modern U.S. history. But Musk, a habitual disruptor, appears undeterred.

Despite the headlines, Trump appears unbothered. So far, he’s shrugged off the challenge with characteristic bravado, and, in classic Trump fashion, a few all-caps barbs.