“It’s the Ketamine talking”: Trump ally’s brutal disparagement of Musk’s new party

Billionaire Elon Musk has announced that he will be launching a new political party, the America Party, to challenge what he sees as a “one-party system” in Washington, D.C.

Since leaving the Trump administration, Musk’s relationship with President Trump has deteriorated rapidly. The rift was largely triggered by the GOP’s massive spending bill, which included deep cuts to Medicaid and investments in green energy technology, and is projected to add over $4 trillion to the deficit. Musk publicly criticized the bill, which had incorporated many of Trump’s key campaign promises.

On X, the platform Musk owns, he vowed to run candidates against Republicans who voted for the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act.” But that threat didn’t seem to carry much weight—only two GOP House members voted against the package.

This has led many close to Trump to begin attacking Musk and his blossoming political movement before it even gets off the ground. In an interview with The Washington Post, Jim McLaughlin, a staunch ally of the president and a trusted pollster, downplayed the threat to the GOP’s electoral chances.

“I think it’s the ketamine talking in the middle of the night,” said McLaughlin, who added that “Trump is the Republican Party right now,” and that within the base, there is no “hankering for a third party with Elon Musk.”

Musk downplays the risk that his ‘America Party’ will help Democrats

On Sunday, July 6, Musk reposted a message from author Scott Adams that highlighted how his plan differs from that of Ross Perot’s third-party run in 1992, which many believe contributed to Democrat Bill Clinton’s victory over incumbent Republican George H.W. Bush.

The post suggested that Musk does not intend to back a presidential candidate. Instead, the America Party will focus on congressional races, aiming to “give Republicans a new way to get past politics to solutions the country wants and needs, such as deficit reduction.”

However, in many competitive districts, the presence of a third-party candidate backed by Musk could split the vote between Republicans and right-leaning independents, potentially handing the seat to a Democrat. While Musk may believe his candidates will draw support from both parties, or that Republicans might step aside in specific races, the more likely outcome is that the America Party will pull more support from the GOP base. In a three-way race, one side almost always loses more than the other. Unless Musk’s candidates can attract significant support from Democrats as well, or Republicans strategically avoid running in those districts, the risk of vote-splitting that benefits Democrats remains very real.

How do independent voters view Musk?

Surveys from YouGov offer useful insights into how independent voters view Elon Musk and his role in the Trump administration. In early June, one poll found that 51 percent of independents believed Musk had too much influence within the administration. Additionally, 38 percent said his time in government hurt the country, compared to just 20 percent who felt he had helped. Another survey revealed that 39 percent of non-aligned voters thought Musk should lose access to federal contracts and subsidies—a view shared by 61 percent of Democrats but only 23 percent of Republicans.

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