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Donald Trump has lashed out at Elon Musk after the billionaire unveiled plans to launch a brand new US political party, calling him a “train wreck” in an escalation of the feud between the US president and his former ally.
Trump and Musk developed a political alliance on the 2024 presidential election, however the pair fell out after the Tesla and SpaceX chief executive’s transient stint as a White House adviser this yr.
Musk has harshly criticised Trump’s flagship “one big beautiful bill”, which the president signed into law last week, accusing the administration of “bankrupting” the country since the law is projected so as to add greater than $3tn to the US debt over the subsequent decade.
Over the weekend, Musk announced that he would form a brand new, third party. He didn’t offer details or make clear if he intended stand for office himself, but suggested that the party could give attention to just a few congressional races, raising questions on whether he could divert votes away from the Republican party in next yr’s midterm elections.
Trump lashed out over the announcement late on Sunday, writing on his Truth Social platform that he was “saddened to look at Elon Musk go completely ‘off the rails’ essentially becoming a TRAIN WRECK over the past five weeks”.
“He even wants to begin a Third Political Party, despite the incontrovertible fact that they’ve never succeeded in the US,” Trump added.
The president had previously derided Musk’s plan to create a brand new political party.
“We’ve got an incredible success with the Republican Party. The Democrats have lost their way, nevertheless it’s at all times been a two-party system, and I feel starting a 3rd party just adds to confusion,” Trump told reporters.
He added that Musk could “have a good time with it, but I feel it’s ridiculous”.
Musk declared his intention to form what he called the “America party” on his social media platform X on Saturday, saying it was needed to combat the “one-party system” undermining US democracy in order that Americans could have their “freedom” back.
Until recently one in all Trump’s closest allies, Musk donated greater than $250mn to the president’s election campaign and oversaw the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) budget-cutting operation, which required him to step back from the each day operations of his corporations.
Speaking on CNN on Sunday, Scott Bessent, the US Treasury secretary, suggested that the boards of Musk’s businesses can be displeased by his plans to mount a political party.
“I imagine that those boards of directors didn’t like this announcement yesterday, and shall be encouraging him to give attention to his business activities, not his political activities,” the Treasury secretary said. He also took a dig at Musk, saying that the “principles” of Doge had been “popular”, but Musk was “was not.”
Musk later responded by calling Bessent a “Soros stooge”, referring to his past work for Soros Fund Management, the hedge fund founded by investor George Soros, a hate figure among the many president’s supporters.