Musk’s ‘America Party’ and the evidence that Trump’s coalition is starting to fracture

President Donald Trump is now treating his former buddy Elon Musk like an “off the rails” oddity.

But as their relationship continues to devolve with insults and Musk’s promise to fund his own “America Party” instead of Trump’s Republican Party, it’s worth looking at what a well-funded alternative party might actually do

I talked to John Kenneth White, a professor emeritus of politics at Catholic University and the author of several books on American political parties, why they’re formed and where they’re headed. We talked about what political harm Musk might actually be able to inflict on the president.

Money, negativity and Ross Perot

You’ve written books about the history of political parties. What’s the first thing that goes through your head when you hear that Elon Musk is forming one?

Dissatisfaction has never broken the two parties

WOLF: You mentioned the Tea Party. That was a movement within the Republican Party, whereas Musk is essentially trying to create, by force of his billions, one man’s political party. So it seems like they’re kind of the opposite.

WHITE: They are, in that sense, but the whole movement stems from the same strand — the dissatisfaction with both parties. That is a through line that Musk is trying to build upon. He’s saying, ‘Are you dissatisfied with the parties? Would you like a third choice?’ Which Americans always say they want until they’re faced with that particular choice. The idea that we have another option seems good until it’s that third party and that candidate and that person that appears, and then suddenly, not so much.