“Third parties are good for me; I don’t know about Republicans, but for me.”

— President Trump, speaking to reporters.

“As Elon Musk moves to create a third party to upend America’s political system, he’s spoken with one-time Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang about the nascent effort,” Politico reports.

Said Yang: “I’m excited for anyone who wants to move on from the duopoly. And I’m happy to help give someone a sense of what the path looks like.”

New York Times: “The American electoral system tends to favor a two-party system, and one of the most important reasons is that it’s winner-take-all.”

“It doesn’t have proportional representation, which might allow a third party to gain a modest number of seats with a modest share of the vote. Most states don’t employ ranked choice voting, which could hypothetically allow a third party’s voters to eventually transfer their support to a major party. And unlike a parliamentary system, the presidency doesn’t lend itself to coalition government.”

“With third parties unlikely to obtain power, people often see a vote for a third party as a wasted vote that might be better spent ensuring their preferred major party prevails.”

Jonathan Bernstein: “This is one of those things, perhaps, that sounds clever until one thinks about it for, oh, thirty seconds.”

For members: Why Elon Musk’s Third Party Is Doomed

“Launching a new national political party in the United States may be more difficult than sending a man to Mars,” the New York Times reports.

“Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, who last year was the nation’s biggest known political donor, now says that he is trying to do both. But while the effort to achieve interplanetary travel has made slow progress for over 20 years, the past several decades of American politics are littered with abandoned attempts to disrupt the two-party system.”

For members: Why Elon Musk’s Third Party Is Doomed

President Trump said Elon Musk was “essentially becoming a TRAIN WRECK,” while expressing disappointment that his formerly loyal supporter has decided to form a political party, Politico reports.

Said Trump, on Truth Social: “He even wants to start a Third Political Party, despite the fact that they have never succeeded in the United States.”

He added: “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, who have lost their confidence and their minds! Republicans, on the other hand, are a smooth running ‘machine,’ that just passed the biggest Bill of its kind in the History of our Country.”

Daily Beast: Trump goes nuclear on ‘“train wreck” Elon.

“Elon Musk said a new political party he has been threatening to start up ‘is formed,’ a day after President Donald Trump signed a tax-cut and spending bill that the Tesla Inc. billionaire chief executive officer has denounced,” Bloomberg reports.

CNBC: “Musk is the world’s richest man, so his involvement in any close political races could prove to be decisive.”

Elon Musk floated a strategy for his hypothetical third political party:

“One way to execute on this would be to laser-focus on just 2 or 3 Senate seats and 8 to 10 House districts. Given the razor-thin legislative margins, that would be enough to serve as the deciding vote on contentious laws, ensuring that they serve the true will of the people.”

“Time for a new political party that actually cares about the people.”

— Elon Musk, on X, once again slamming President Trump’s tax bill.

Elon Musk floated a new political party on Friday after falling out with President Trump over the big, beautiful bill, The Hill reports.

Said Musk: “The people have spoken. A new political party is needed in America to represent the 80% in the middle! And exactly 80% of people agree. This is fate.”

He followed up with a potential name for the group, “The America Party.”

Elon Musk seemed to suggest support of a third political party as he escalated a growing fight with President Trump that boiled over on Thursday, The Hill reports.

He asked his 200 million followers on X: “Is it time to create a new political party in America that actually represents the 80% in the middle?”

A new Gallup poll finds 58% of U.S. adults agree that a third major party is needed in the U.S. because the Republican and Democratic parties “do such a poor job” of representing the American people.

Former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) suggested that a new political party might need to be created to replace the Republican Party if he is defeated, the New York Times reports.

Said Cheney: “Whether it’s organizing a new party — look, it’s hard for me to see how the Republican Party, given what it has done, can make the argument convincingly or credibly that people ought to vote for Republican candidates until it really recognizes what it’s done.”

She added: “There is certainly going to be a big shift, I think, in how our politics work. I don’t know exactly what that will look like. I don’t think it will just simply be, well, the Republican Party is going to put up a new slate of candidates and off to the races. I think far too much has happened that’s too damaging.”