Elon Musk declares new America Party is 'formed' with dig at Donald Trump

Billionaire Elon Musk has declared his new America Party has been "formed" with a dig at former ally-turned-foe Donald Trump.

Mr Musk asked users on X on July 4 whether he should form a new party to challenge the Democrats and Republicans, despite backing the GOP at the last election to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars. In a poll, 65.4 per cent of 1.2 million respondents said a new America Party should be formed - it is unclear how many of those respondents were actually US citizens.

In a statement shared to X today, Mr Musk said: "By a factor of 2 to 1, you want a new political party and you shall have it! When it comes to bankrupting our country with waste & graft, we live in a one-party system, not a democracy. Today, the America Party is formed to give you back your freedom."

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It is unclear whether a third party under Mr Musk's guidance would see success in the ballot box as other smaller political parties in the US have often floundered against the Democrat and Republican parties. In the last presidential election, third party and independent candidates received just 2.13 per cent of the vote, estimated to be around three million votes.

The move comes amid a spectacular fallout between Mr Musk and Mr Trump over the president's so-called Big, Beautiful Bill. The legislation, which passed earlier this week, aims to extend Mr Trump's 2017 tax cuts and will ensure funding for ICE, which goes after people living in the US illegally.

But critics claim the bill is not properly funded and will add trillions of dollars to the deficit, strip Americans of their access to food stamps and Medicaid, which poorer citizens use to fund their healthcare.

The fractured alliance ended after Mr Musk was brought into the White House to eliminate what he deemed wasteful spending in Washington DC, although the programmes eliminated were viewed by many as haphazard and without a clear goal.

Mr Musk has been more vocal about his criticism of Mr Trump and even claimed he was named in the files on late paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

In response, Mr Trump appeared to debate whether to launch financial audits into Mr Musk's companies and considered whether the South African-born billionaire should be deported.

The president previously told reporters in Florida: "We might have to put Doge on Elon. Doge is the monster that might have to go back and eat Elon. Wouldn’t that be terrible."