Rama Krishna Sangem
Now the talk of the town in the US is whether President Donald Trump’s buddy turned bitter critic Elon Musk will launch a new political party. We have been seeing in disbelief the quick straining of relations between them – where suddenly Musk became an arch critic of Trump. There’s no time for us to grasp what went wrong with them.
Only recently we have seen how Trump flaunted Musk with him during his three nation tour of Saudi Arabia, UAE and Qatar where every Royal family member tried to woo the Tesla boss. But, once Trump is back in the US, the scene changed completely.
Situation has gone to the extent of Musk saying Trump wouldn’t have won the Presidential election last November without his backing, while the latter struck back saying he had never needed the former’s support, at least to win Pennsylvania. We know it is Musk who made a big impact not just by openly endorsing Trump candidacy a year ago, but also donated huge sums – $ 350 million to his campaign.
Trump kept Musk beside him when he interviewed prospective Cabinet team members and other high officials at his home, Mar –a Lago in Florida. Later, Trump appointed Musk as head of DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency). Vivek Ramaswamy was the other member of DOGE, but he withdrew from the panel, due to his plans to his fight governor elections in 2026.
DOGE starting point of trouble
Here is the beginning of the rift between Musk and Trump. The main purpose of DOGE is to cut US administration costs and downsizing the bureaucracy. Initial target of DOGE is to cut a government spending by $ 2 trillion in span of a year and half. But, there was heavy resistance from the government staff to Musk plans to cut the budgets.
With great difficult, DOGE would cut about $150 billion of government budgets. This is a patch on the target. Trump was helpless as his core supporters were divided into – Musk and his opponents. Musk was clearly disappointed.
OBBB, the tipping point
Then came the tipping point – Trump’s One Big & Beautiful Bill. The bill aims to cut many subsidies, but increases the government spending and debt burden by tax cuts to the super rich. The bill not only raised the US debt limit to $ 4 trillion but increases defence budget by $ 175 billion. Cuts to subsidies to electric vehicles is another reason for Musk’s anger, as he owns EV giant, Tesla.
Musk not just left DOGE but also started attacking Trump and the Congressional members for passing OBBB. Finally, Musk raked up Trump’s links to Jeffrey Epstein files. The files related to the suicide of Epstein, a sex scandals accused some time back. Musk says the files are not disclosed only because of Trump figured in the files.
Of course, Trump’s camp denied the accusation. Trump’s former advisor and Musk critic Steve Bannon went to the extent of cancelling all Musk’s contracts with the US government and setting up an investigation into his citizenship. In this backdrop, Musk asked his followers on X whether it is the time to start a new political party that represents 80 per cent of middle level Americans.
Is there space for a new party America?
Needless to say, about 80 per cent of the 2 million followers of Musk on X voted in support of a new party. Whether Musk goes ahead with the party plans or not is not known. But, there’s little space and scope for a new political party in the US as of now. They cover Left of the Centre and Right winger ideologies.
There are only two big parties now – Democrats (Left of the centre or liberal) and Republicans (Right wingers) at the federal level. Of course, there half a dozen smaller parties too – like Constitution Party, Green Party and Libertarian Party at the national level. While all the Presidents are elected from these two main parties in the last two centuries, small parties win only a few congressional seats here and there.
And there are dozens of small and local parties at the state level. Anyone can register a new political party with the Federal Election Commission for starting a national party. The FEC conducts thorough enquiry into the applications and allows them after an elaborate process. For Musk, it may not be difficult to start a new party at the national level because he has millions of supporters across the US. But, will he do it now or just testing the waters? We need to wait and watch!
