In a dramatic escalation of his public feud with US President Donald Trump, tech billionaire Elon Musk on Thursday posted a poll on X, asking users whether it was time to launch a new political party in the United States.
The move sparked immediate speculation about Musk’s political ambitions and deepened the rift between two of America’s most prominent and polarising figures.
"Is it time to create a new political party in America that actually represents the 80% in the middle?" he posted on X.
In another post, he wrote: "Oh and some food for thought as they ponder this question: Trump has 3.5 years left as President, but I will be around for 40+ years …"
In another fiery post, Musk went on to claim that Trump won the US presidential elections because of him. "Without me, Trump would have lost the election," Musk said on X. "Such ingratitude."
Shares of electric vehicle maker Tesla were down 9% following the outbursts, to their lowest level since late February.
The back-and-forth made it clear tensions had reached a boiling point between the world's most powerful man and the world's richest man, after weeks of speculation that they were headed for a clash of egos.
Musk, whose other companies include rocket company and government contractor SpaceX and its satellite unit Starlink, spent nearly $300 million in the 2024 election in support of Trump and other Republican candidates.
Starting on Tuesday, the tech executive unleashed a series of blistering attacks against what Trump calls his "big, beautiful bill." Musk called it a "disgusting abomination" that would deepen the federal deficit, amplifying a rift within the Republican Party that could threaten the bill's prospects in the Senate.
Nonpartisan analysts say the bill could add $2.4 trillion to $5 trillion to the nation's $36.2 trillion in debt.
Trump asserted that Musk's complaints were motivated by the proposed elimination of consumer tax credits for electric vehicles.
Trump suggested that Musk was upset because he missed working for Trump, who gave Musk a praise-filled sendoff last week after the billionaire oversaw the president's federal bureaucracy cost-cutting campaign.
"He's not the first," Trump said. "People leave my administration ... then at some point they miss it so badly, and some of them embrace it and some of them actually become hostile."
Musk had signaled that he planned to step back from politics, saying last month he planned to substantially scale back his political spending. Friction between him and Trump could hurt Republicans' chances of keeping control of Congress in the 2026 midterm elections.
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