There’s an undeniable poetry to Donald Trump topping off what might have been his most successful legislative and executive month in the White House to date with the resurfacing of the psychodrama between himself and the world’s richest man.
Former “first buddy” Elon Musk had promised to start a new political party if Trump passed his deficit-exploding Big Beautiful Bill, and now he has done so — at least, on paper. The jury is still out on just how serious he is.
But with the midterms looming in a year and a half, Republicans hoping to sandbag their majorities would certainly not want Musk’s ‘America Party’ candidates on the ballot in key contests.
Third-party runs in the US system do not have a history of success. The graveyard is littered with the bones of reformers and eccentrics who thought they could crack the duopoly that has run the place since before the Civil War. Virtually every political institution in the country is designed to preserve that system.
